Chō-Yuzuru
by WaterDrinker247
Summary: Yuzuru Nishimiya meets a homeless boy who reminds her an awful lot of herself; how well will they get along? Or will they at all?
1. The Reaper

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

Author's Note 4/20/20: I have been receiving a lot of requests to make Ren appear in Days and Years, which I couldn't agree more on. In order to do this, I am retconning a few things. I will try to change the story as little as possible. Feel free to reread for context! Thank you for all of the support, everyone :)

* * *

After Yuzuru Nishimiya had achieved her goal of setting up her two favorite people in the world together, she began to feel alienated from them. One was her sister, Shoko Nishimiya, and the other was her best friend, Shoya Ishida. Because they were both in town for the holiday, Yuzuru expected to enjoy a lot of quality time with them, as she would usually. However, she would feel the need to give them privacy a lot of the time, and force herself out of spending time with them. It didn't help that she had very few other friends at her school, which was not yet out for holiday.

Because of this, Yuzuru was often lonely, and she spent a lot of time looking for things to do. She usually wound up just going to the Ishida residence under the guise of "needing help with homework," but she actually just wanted to spend time with Shoko, Shoya, and Shoya's niece (Unfortunately, this was not always guaranteed, since Shoya and Shoko would go out frequently).

* * *

When Yuzuru wasn't at the Ishida residence, she tended to pass the time taking photos. She was only 15, but she was already an incredibly skilled photographer with an incredibly high-quality camera. Her photography skills had earned her scholarships, among other rewards. However, they could not do what she ultimately developed them for.

For context, a long time ago, her sister, Shoko, whom Yuzuru loved more than anyone else in the world, was bullied to a breaking point. Shoko expressed a desire to just simply die, to rid the world of what she considered to be a burden. Yuzuru would not stand for it, so through photography, she tried to capture the horror that was death, in hopes that Shoko would stop desiring such a fate. Despite the hundreds of photos that Yuzuru took of animal carcasses, Shoko still attempted suicide, but was saved by Shoya. Yuzuru was crushed that Shoko tried to go through with such a morbid act, and she felt that the photos were meaningless, so she threw them all away. She never stopped photography, but she stopped photographing death.

* * *

After school, Yuzuru went to the Suimon-Bashi Bridge, to feed the koi bread. After she depleted about a quarter of the baguette, she noticed something odd. When she looked into the water after she distinctly remembered throwing a piece of bread, no bread was there. It wasn't that the koi had eaten it already though- there was never even a splash in the water, because the koi had no bread to fight over. She shrugged it off as just her imagination and continued feeding the fish. This strange occurrence happened twice more during her feeding of the fish. By the time she finished feeding, it was dark, and she walked home.

A week or so later, Yuzuru was going back to the bridge to feed the koi. This time, however, it was after studying with Shoya and Shoko, so it was dark. Shoya was walking the girls home, so they all stopped to feed the koi together.

"Hey, Shoya…" Yuzuru began quietly. Her mind was drawn back to the previous week. "I want you to pay attention to the bread that we throw, okay?" She didn't want to drag Shoko into a weird situation, so she wasn't signing.

"What, like be conscious of how much I throw in?" Shoya asked confusedly.

"Sort of, I get the feeling that not all the bread that we throw hits the water." She replied.

Shoya gave Yuzuru a weird look. He wanted to laugh it off as one of her jokes, but her tone made him question this. It wouldn't be the first time he would be fooled, though; a long time ago, Yuzuru managed to make Shoya think that she was a boy for a few weeks. Because of this history, Shoya just shrugged. He decided against buying in to one of her weird pranks.

Shoya peered over the edge, as he always does, dubious that anything was amiss. Shoko, noticing this, peered too, catching from the situation that there must be something to be seen. After each throw of bread, they saw a faint movement from below, not from the koi. It was far too dark for Shoya to distinguish what exactly the movement originated from, though. The creepy, unidentifiable movement made Shoko gasp and look up at Shoya. It was at this point that Yuzuru pointed something out, "Hey, the bread didn't hit the water, am I right?" she asked, seemingly for reassurance. Shoya felt a chill run down his spine.

He quietly looked to Yuzuru and nodded. Yuzuru now had a scared look in her eyes, something that both Shoya and Shoko felt uneasy about. "Okay, you two… I've got an idea." She began, as she started to sign, conscious of whatever was under the bridge's potential ability to hear, as well as her sister's. They nodded, and Yuzuru exited the bridge to get somewhat of a side view. On her fingers, she counted down from three. On cue, Shoya and Shoko dropped the bread piece down, and Yuzuru snapped a flash-photo at the same time. From the flash, Yuzuru saw a ragged-looking teenage boy, balanced on a beam under the bridge. His arm was extended, and his hand was reaching out for the bread as it fell. His face had an expression of pure terror. After the noise of the camera shutter, a splash was heard from the Suimon River.

* * *

Ren was fourteen years old, had brown eyes, and had slightly curly medium length black hair. He was a skinny, short, and potentially delusional teenager. Because of these things, he was often inclined to hide in strange places. Often times he would climb into the trees of parks, or he would hide in crevices where he could stay dry. He was terrified of being found, especially since he had nobody to protect him. Though he can't remember the exact details, he knows that he somehow lost his family and his home in a fire, and instead of being claimed by his strict (perhaps to the point of abuse) aunt and uncle, he decided to take to the streets.

He was intelligent, but his knowledge of the real world was very limited. He was familiar with religion and folklore, and he knew about death as well as the consequences of malnourishment. Because he has gone so long without proper education, the real and the imaginary of it all blended together with him. This is where his paranoia kicked in. As it was previously mentioned, Yuzuru used to take pictures of dead creatures. Several times while she was taking the photo, Ren was nearby. He stared in awe at the technology in action. Cameras were not alien to him, but the action of taking such gruesome photos certainly was. Because of this, Ren had a strange theory about this photographer. She must be the Reaper.

Every time he had ever seen the small, dark haired girl, she was alone, photographing dead things. Never once had he seen her with another person, and only once did he see her taking photos during the day. Ren became incredibly fearful of her, and he did his best to avoid her. He must have done well, because she never knew of his existence. That is, not until now.

* * *

When Ren saw the light flash, he was startled. It's when he realized he heard the all-too-familiar noise of the camera shutter that he slipped and fell into the river out of fear. This was the least of his concerns, as he felt like he had been marked for death. He swam to the shore opposite to where the light came from and began running to the base of a staircase. Upon looking up, he saw a ghastly silhouette standing at its top. He could tell that it was her. Immediately, he got down into dogeza (formal bow of apology) position and pleaded for his life.

"P-please…" he began. "Surely my life isn't over just yet…" He seemed to be forcing himself to talk formally, as if he had known Yuzuru.

Yuzuru, as well as Shoya and Shoko, who appeared next to her to see what was going on, stared in a baffled silence. This silence only increased Ren's anxiety and paranoia. The tension was broken, however, when Yuzuru spoke up. "Are you on crack?" she said, only half jokingly. "What the hell are you talking about, man?"

Ren looked up just as Yuzuru turned on a phone flashlight. The light temporarily blinded Ren, but he took this brief moment of confusion as a chance to escape. He got up and started running the other direction, but his cold, wet, hungry body would not tolerate such exertion. He almost immediately fell over from exhaustion. Just as he drifted to sleep, he heard three voices calling out to him.

* * *

Ren woke up due to hunger pangs. Surprisingly to him, it wasn't a gust of piercingly-cold wind that shocked him awake this time. "You're awake, huh?" Yuzuru, who was in the corner of the room on a swivel chair, asked him. "You passed out, and we couldn't just let you sleep on the concrete." Yuzuru was all too familiar with sleeping in weird places, and she knew firsthand that it truly was not something a child should have to go through.

"Please don't scold me for asking such bizarre questions…" Ren began.

Yuzuru shrugged. "Go ahead."

"Is this the afterlife? Are you Death, or God, or neither?" he asked.

Yuzuru just laughed. "Neither, I'm the devil!" she said jokingly. Ren could tell that she was not really being serious, so it put him mostly at ease. "And nah, this is just my apartment. My friend and I carried you up here so that you wouldn't freeze to death." At this, Ren looked down in shame, for making such bizarre assumptions about this girl. Seeing this change in mood, Yuzuru broke the ice by saying, "My name is Yuzuru. My sister, who's currently preparing you some food, her name is Shoko. Her boyfriend, who is currently making you some tea, his name is Shoya."

"My name is Ren," he said formally. "I am very sorry for troubling you. You shouldn't worry about someone like me."

Yuzuru shrugged. "Well, I personally know that the streets aren't a place for kids to be sleeping. So, why don't we call your parents and get you home?" Yuzuru suggested.

"H-hey! I'm probably older than you…" Ren said, slightly offended about being called "kid."

Yuzuru stuck her tongue out. "I'm fifteen." she said Ren was about to protest, but he stopped himself and pouted, knowing that she's indeed older than him.

"O-okay, well on another note, I have no parents to call." Ren said, casual enough to change subjects. Yuzuru's eyes widened, but she didn't apologize, something that Ren was grateful for. He didn't want her pity, he wanted to be tough. "Look, the streets are more of a home to me than anywhere else, so I appreciate your kindness, but I should get going."

As he stepped out of the cot that he was sleeping on, he immediately fell over again, slamming against the floor. "Ahh, damn!" Yuzuru exclaimed as Shoya, who heard the commotion, came in to check if everything was okay.

* * *

When Ren woke up again, he was frustrated. He wanted to leave, but he was cold, starving, and achy. Inside, there was food, warmth, and somewhere to sleep. But he knew this was temporary. He could never _stay_ here, so why bother wasting these kind peoples' time? Yuzuru looked at his frustrated face and giggled. "Insistent on leaving, eh?" she asked. "Well, since you physically _can't_ leave, why not be our guest for the night?" Ren pouted and said nothing.

"Here you go." Shoya said as he brought Ren a tray with pleasantly hot tea.

Next, Shoko came up to him and set down the hot food she had prepared. "Pwease eat." she said, nervous about how her voice would affect things.

Ren was a little confused, but he realized pretty quickly that Shoko was deaf. He was stubborn, so he didn't want to thank them, but he knew it would be cruel to the polite, deaf girl, standing in front of him. A quiet, yet audible to Yuzuru and Shoya, "thanks" was heard from Ren's lips, which he made the movements of very prominent. Despite this, he made no active effort to eat. Shoko moved to go sit next to Shoya, and Yuzuru got out of her chair to sit in front of the boy.

"Eat it." she commanded. Ren looked away, embarrassed. "If you don't eat it, I'll make you eat it." Yuzuru explained casually, and Ren was even more embarrassed.

"I-itadakimasu…" Ren said quietly as he slowly began to eat his food. Yuzuru watched him intently, deliberately to make him uncomfortable. Ren faced away as he stuffed his face. He hated to admit that he was truly enjoying the food in front of him, the food that was more than just a piece of bread that was torn off of a baguette. Shoya and Shoko, who were holding hands and watching, glanced from the scene to each other and snickered at both of the teenagers' strange behavior.

* * *

"U-um… can I go to the bathroom?" Ren asked politely, despite the fact that he hid his face. Yuzuru nodded and led him there. After Ren finished up, he walked back out, feeling completely relieved yet full. "I guess it's time for me to head out…" Ren said, followed by a yawn. "Thank you very much, and please excuse me for my presence. I probably should get going now."

Yuzuru just clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Listen, it's freezing out there. You should sleep here tonight."

Ren began to say, "Thank you, but I don't want to waste any more of your ti-"

"Sleep. Now." Yuzuru interrupted as she pointed at the cot she and Shoya laid out for him. "Or else."

Ren had gathered that Yuzuru may not be supernatural, but she was quite scary. He was obliged to listen to her. "Y-yes ma'am…"

Shoya looked back and forth between these teenagers. He could tell that Yuzuru got a kick out of being called "ma'am," and having someone to boss around. "I should probably go, are you and your mother okay with having a guest stay the night?" he said while signing, addressing Shoko, who nodded and smiled. "I can probably take him into my house if I need to." he offered to both Shoko and Yuzuru.

Yuzuru shook her head. "No, Mom remembers how you took care of me, so she's feeling kind enough to let Ren stay the night. I already texted and asked her."

During this back and forth, Ren felt like a cornered animal. He was indeed being taken care of, but he felt like a burden, and this feeling burdened him. He wanted to leave, but his hosts insisted on him staying. He sighed. "Look, I appreciate it a lot, but I really don't need the help. I'd rather you guys don't worry about me, it would just save you the trouble."

Yuzuru just shook her head and stood up. In one swift motion, she propped a foot against Ren's shoulder and kicked him to the ground, his head landing on the pillow. "Just shut up and sleep!" Shoya took this as his cue to leave, and he hugged Shoko goodbye and signed a "see you later" to them both. "I may not know you and you may not know me, but just accept this favor and quit bitching about it! I've been fed and sheltered after sleeping in the outdoors, and I know how hard it is to accept. But it's better than the alternative, so at least for tonight, just sleep, okay?" Yuzuru said frustratedly.

Ren stared in awe. "You're scary…" he said absentmindedly after her rant. "I'm sorry, I'll go to sleep." He said immediately after Yuzuru shot him dagger eyes after he called her "scary." He shut his eyes and drifted to sleep almost immediately.

* * *

Yuzuru sighed and shut the door. She was frustrated. "_Why is it so hard to accept help? Why am I even concerning myself with this kid?_" she thought to herself as she sulked at the dining room table and drank shizo juice. She smirked. "_He reminds me of me…_" she thought as pictures darted in her head of the playground and Ishida's house. "Heh, I bet that's why mom's letting him stay the night…" she whispered to herself. For the rest of the night, until she fell asleep, Yuzuru watched videos on her laptop.

Ren was the first to wake up, bright and early, and he was ready to leave. He wished that he could erase his traces from ever having been there, but he can't un-eat the food he was given or un-drink the tea. He did, however, feel like he owed something to his hostess. He found a pen and a pad of paper.

After this, he left. He was off to find some work, something which he could earn the money to pay his acquaintance back with.

Yuzuru woke up early to get ready for school, and looked into the room where Ren was. He had left, vanishing seemingly without a trace. She then found a note on the dining room table, which said the following:

_Dear Yuzuru,_

_Thank you so much for taking care of me. I will pay you back for everything you gave to me, I promise. Please tell Mr. Shoya and Ms. Shoko the same thing. I apologize for my rude behavior, especially for my hard-headed stubbornness and my calling you "scary." You're super, Yuzuru._

_-Ren Fujisawa._

* * *

Yuzuru felt a mixture of emotions. First of all, she found it hilarious that he was apologizing for such a little thing as calling her "scary." In fact, she was glad that someone found her scary. Also, she wasn't particularly surprised that he left, yet she was disappointed. She was also pretty sure that he was not going to show his face ever again, so she felt doubly disappointed. She could not, however, help but be touched by the last sentence on the note.

"You're super, Yuzuru."


	2. Golden

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

Author's Note 4/20/20: I have been receiving a lot of requests to make Ren appear in Days and Years, which I couldn't agree more on. In order to do this, I am retconning a few things. I will try to change the story as little as possible. Feel free to reread for context! Thank you for all of the support, everyone :)

* * *

Ren immediately searched for some work, some sort of odd job that he could do so that he could pay Yuzuru, Shoko, and Shoya back for their time and resources. It was bright and early, so most establishments were getting ready to open. Ren stopped in every single one he could identify as open, and he asked whoever was behind the counter if there was any work for an inexperienced, uneducated teenager like himself. Of course, he heard a resounding "NO," from almost everywhere. _Almost_.

* * *

After an hour and a half of checking with local businesses, Ren decided to stop in one that looked amicable and mostly deserted, yet a sign indicated that it was open. This place was called "Hair Make Ishida." As soon as he entered, and the bell jingled to announce it, he heard footsteps making their way towards him. "S-sumimasen! (Excuse me!)" he called out, to establish a certain level of politeness before he asked for any sort of work.

"Why, hello! I would never expect someone so young to be up so early!" a dyed-blonde, tired-looking, yet very pretty lady remarked as she walked toward Ren. "Do you know what kind of hairstyle you want to get today?"

"U-um, actually, I was here to ask if there was any work I could do…" Ren replied, shyly. Ren stood up and steeled his nerves. "My name is Ren Fujisawa, and I would very much appreciate any sort of odd job you may have for me!" he said quickly and formally.

"Hmm…" the lady pondered as she rubbed her chin. "Well, I personally don't make enough to pay you even minimum wage... but I suppose I could have you clean up around here and run errands!" she said cheerfully.

"R-really?!" Ren said, excitedly. "_This lady is a life saver, I definitely owe her one as well..._" he thought to himself. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much!" he exclaimed, leaping with joy. He talked a little more with the lady so that he knew when to show up for work. He would have to come back in around thirty minutes, after the lady had eaten breakfast with her family. She offered to let him stay and eat with her, but Ren already felt like he was asking a lot from her; he didn't want to mooch off of such a sweet lady.

* * *

For twenty minutes or so, Ren just walked around, enjoying the scenery of the town, feeling very accomplished after securing himself just a little bit of work. He then made his way back to the hairdresser's, where the lady was beginning to cut somebody's hair. "Ah, you're back! Right on time, too! You're going to be sweeping the hair away after I finish working on her!"

Ren spent the next four hours sweeping up hair, throwing it away, and waiting for hair to hit the floor. The whole time, he noticed a lingering scent of bacon and eggs. He wondered why the lady hadn't put it away or eaten it herself. Very soon, he got an answer to that; a very tall, skinny, young man emerged from the upstairs room, looking like he just woke up. Immediately, Ren recognized him. "It's y-you!" Ren said in awe, pointing at him.

* * *

That guy, Shoya Ishida, yawned, rubbed his eyes and blinked. "Hmm? Oh, it's you, you're the one from last night, yeah? I'm glad to see you don't have a black eye. I thought Yuzuru was gonna knock you out so that you'd just shut up and go to sleep." he said cheerfully and jokingly.

Ms. Ishida looked from one boy to the other. "You know Yuzuru? You two know each other? Well then why don't you two boys go eat what's left of breakfast! Don't worry, Ren, there isn't anyone here for me to work on, so let's call this a break!" she said cheerfully. "_Yeah, I definitely owe her a lot..._" Ren thought.

* * *

The boys departed for the dining room, where Ren very hesitantly ate the bacon and eggs. "So what brings you here, working for my mom?" Shoya asked. "Are you trying to make some cash or something?"

Ren nodded with a mouthful of food. "Ye, do bay errone ack! (Yeah, to pay everyone back!)" he said. He swallowed hard. "I usually scavenge for food, finding scraps in trash cans behind restaurants or stealing bread from koi… and people sort of look at me like I'm a stray dog. You three though… you guys tried to rescue me; you saw more than a rough outside and tried to help me out. Well, I never know when I'll need that kind of help, but I may or may not have needed it last night. So I want to thank you guys."

Shoya scratched his head, seemingly deep in thought. "Um, it really wasn't a big deal, man. But if you're going to work to thank anyone, thank Yuzuru. I mean, Shoko and I were glad to help, but all I did was help Yuzuru carry you and make you some tea, and Shoko just made the food. Yuzuru was the one about to knock your lights out for trying to sleep outdoors."

Ren too sat, deep in thought. "I guess…" he began, then he scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I still want to pay you two back, but Yuzuru should be my main priority."

Shoya just laughed. "You've got a funny way of saying things, man By the way, I never actually got your name. You probably already know, but mine's Shoya." he said.

"I'm Ren." he said cheerfully before taking another big bite of his food.

After this, the conversation devolved into small talk until the doorbell jingled and somebody walked in. Shoya walked back upstairs, put on nicer clothes, and went out. Ren walked over, ready for orders from Ms. Ishida. He spent another several hours cleaning up around the shop, and once it got dark, things slowed down significantly. That is, until the doorbell jingled.

* * *

"Oh, Shoya! And hey girls! Ren is right over there." Ms. Ishida said, pointing in his direction. Ren's body froze. Today had been filled to the brim with weird coincidences. First, Shoya; now, Yuzuru and Shoko. "_C__an today get any weirder?_" Ren thought as he slowly turned his head towards the trio, whilst trying to hide his face in a magazine that he had been reading. Of course, the three of them walked directly up to him.

"So you're spending the night over at Shoya's? How ironic! This is where I was brought after I collapsed outside after running away one day." Yuzuru said, while Ren tried even harder to hide his face.

"N-no, I was just here to work, to pay you back…" Ren said quietly while averting her gaze. "I couldn't find any odd jobs anywhere else, this was the only place that offered me help…" There was silence, and Ren brought the magazine down to see why Yuzuru was being so quiet.

"Umm, I don't mind if you stay over, you know." Shoya said.

"And hey, you really don't have to worry about that, you know." Yuzuru said. "Like I've said, we just don't think kids should be cold and hungry."

"I'm not a kid!" Ren interrupted as he stuck his tongue out.

The three of them laughed at his reaction and Yuzuru said, on a more serious note, "No, but really, kids shouldn't be on the street. Speaking of which, you said you weren't staying the night over here, so then where will you be sleeping?" she asked pointedly, jabbing right through Ren's defenses.

Ren gulped hard. "H-how about we talk about something else?" he said, changing the topic. "Oh, I know, what are in all of those books you have in your arms?" at this, Yuzuru cursed, as if she remembered something very important, and she began to run upstairs.

She stopped midway and glared at Ren. "This isn't over, you know." she said, somewhat brutally. Ren just sighed and slumped back in the chair he was sitting in. Ms. Ishida gave him a look that seemed to say, "_Better watch out, or she'll knock your block off._" Ren smiled and stared up at the ceiling. "_I'm going to pay her back, and I'll be fine out on the streets. She doesn't have a reason to be so upset with me…_"

"Uh, Ren, like I said, you can stay over if you want." Shoya said, looking from Ren to the stairs, curious about Yuzuru's temper. "Anyways, Shoko and I promised her we'd help her ace her exams, so we should be going." Shoya turned around, but Shoko remained for a moment more.

"Pwease come o'er if 'uh need to. It izinn any trouble... (Please come over if you need to. It isn't any trouble)." Shoko said with a bright smile. Ren nodded so as to be polite, not necessarily to accept.

* * *

A little while later, Ms. Ishida had Ren bring up some snacks to the three. Upon his entry into Shoya's room, Yuzuru, Shoko, and Shoya looked up at him, making him freeze for a second. "S-sorry, just dropping off snacks." he said as he set the snacks on the corner of the table and began to walk out.

"Not so fast." Yuzuru said as she patted the floor near where Ren stood. "We have things to discuss." Ren gulped hard, but he was too scared of Yuzuru to deny her request. Ren sat down as politely as possible, while avoiding eye contact with Yuzuru. This made Shoko and Shoya snicker among themselves.

"H-hey, I probably earned enough to p-pay you three back today!" Ren brought up trying to direct the conversation, but Yuzuru clicked her tongue and shook her head.

Ignoring what he said, Yuzuru asked- or commanded, really- "So, you're sleeping over here, yeah?" and Ren hung his head in shame. He hated that he was so stubborn, or maybe he hated that Yuzuru was so insistent on helping someone has hopeless as him. Couldn't he just pay his dues and get back to life?

Shoya stared at him. "You know, I really don't mind. If you're helping out with the shop then you can stay here. I'll even lay out a mat for you."

Ren finally raised a shaky voice in protest. "Wh-what if I r-refuse?" he asked, scared of whatever Yuzuru was going to do or say, as he rightfully should be; he was immediately lifted off the ground by the collar of his worn out shirt.

"You're seriously going to just go out there and freeze just because you're too stubborn to accept our help? We get it, you want everything to be even between us, but we can't just let you freeze!" she said as she shook him. "But if you really try to run out… then fine…" Yuzuru said, settling down. "Just know that if you go out there and sleep in the freezing cold, maybe even the snow, after all the times we've offered shelter to you, I'm going to start looking a lot more like the reaper to you."

* * *

Shoya looked incredibly surprised at Yuzuru's behavior, and Shoko stared in awe of her mannerisms. She was always the tough, uncaring one, but now, she seemed to act almost _motherly _towards this kid. Did she really see herself that much? Shoya could see it a little. But was it enough to warrant her odd behavior? Maybe not.

Yuzuru found herself in an odd position. She was lonely; she felt lonely from being the third wheel every time she hung out with her favorite people. To salt the wound, her other best friend was not yet in town, and she didn't have any friends at school. Yuzuru also had spent plenty of time reflecting on all of the nice things that Shoya had done to try to make Shoko happy, or even just the nice things that he did no matter what. He spent time with Yuzuru, being a friend, even to this day. He saved both of them, and he was unconditionally nice towards both of them. It was due to these reflections that Yuzuru regretted her hostility towards him. This regret, amplified by her feelings of loneliness, the stress of school, and the few similarities between herself and Ren made her very sentimental. It crushed her to see someone so stubborn that they would rather risk freezing to death than owe anyone anything.

* * *

"G-gomenasai… (I'm very sorry...)" Ren said, after the rant. "B-but, you see… I've always felt like I'm a burden on people. Back when I lived with my Aunt and Uncle, they would constantly remind me of how much management I required. So… I decided to rid everyone of that burden…" Shoya and Yuzuru, who heard his reasoning, both were taken aback and painfully reminded of how Shoko used to think. "But I would still carry the burden, so nobody else would have to. Haha… I guess I failed then, huh? I'm still in front of you two, burdening you by wasting your time and space…"

The three of them were dead silent for a bit. Shoya spoke up first. "Look, it's not a waste of time or space to me, and I think I speak for Shoko and Yuzuru too. We may not know each other well, but I can tell from your determination to pay us back that you're a great guy. Personally, I just hate to see someone freeze or starve… I mean… it's not a burden to me, it's just the right thing to do."

Ren stared in awe. Shoya really was a great guy; he seemed to have a heart of gold.. Yuzuru piped up. "I don't really have a good reason other than that, I guess. I know I've said it before, but you remind me of myself when I'd run away from home. I guess I know how my sister must've felt all those times I left…" Shoko just glanced around, feeling the tension in the room.

* * *

Ren remained silent for a few moments. He suddenly asked a question he would immediately regret asking. "A-are you guys like my foster parents now or something?" He immediately slapped his hand over his mouth. "S-sorry…" he said quietly. Shoya and Yuzuru just laughed.

"Well I'd say we'll all be your older siblings, but Shoya here-" she pointed at Shoya, "-is dating my sister, and incest is nasty!" she said while sticking her tongue out and pulling an eyelid down. Shoya just smiled and looked over at Shoko, who seemed to be just as lost as she was before. As Shoya began explaining everything with signs, Yuzuru continued. "So let's just be friends! Friends take care of friends, yeah?" Yuzuru said, matter-of-factly.

* * *

Ren finally had a friend group. He loved it; he loved everything about it. The group spent a lot of time chatting, even Shoko, who could hear bits and pieces and would pipe in in response. Ren felt like the borders that he put up between them had vanished. They chatted about nonsense, and he felt a real bond between them all. They all talked, laughed, and bickered for the next few hours. They brought up sleeping arrangements, and it was decided that Ren was not allowed to sleep outside until he had a heavy-duty, waterproof sleeping bag. He insisted that he would work for it alone, but Yuzuru , Shoko, and Shoya each insisted, more strongly than Ren, upon pitching in some.

For the next few days, Ren spent his days working with Ms. Ishida, who was more than happy to let him stay over as long as he needed, and a small store, which was just as happy. He was making around 1,000¥ every day. Shoya would often be gone all day to spend time with Shoko, and after Ren showed real competence in helping Yuzuru while the other two were out on dates, they decided that Yuzuru didn't actually need their help, and that Ren was plenty good at it. Depsite being out of school for over a year, and being totally unfamiliar with the concepts Yuzuru was learning about, Ren managed to make sense of it enough to provide assistance.

* * *

"Hey, you know, you're actually super smart." Yuzuru said out of the blue, one day. "You should probably go to a high school."

Ren blushed at the compliment. "W-well, I did work really hard during middle school, but I sort of lost the drive to become educated soon after…" he said. Yuzuru said nothing and nodded. She didn't have to ask what he meant; she knew that he had lost his house and family during his third year of middle school. "H-hey, don't be gloomy though! You never know, I may end up going to high school next year! Heck, I'll be more educated than some of the other kids since you've taught me so much!"

Yuzuru just smiled and shook her head. "You're such an odd blend of people. You remind me of myself, Shoya, and Shoko."

"R-really? Even Shoko too?" Ren asked. "Does that mean that Shoya might try to put the moves on me?" he said, drawing a giggle out of Yuzuru. "But from what I know about you all, that is a really nice compliment, so- er- thank you." he said awkwardly.

Yuzuru smiled. "You're golden, man. I read that in a book somewhere, take it to heart." she said goofily, pointing at him as she stood up. "Well I should be going, not that my mom is worried about me, but I don't wanna risk getting grounded. Then I wouldn't be able to come out here." she said. Ren walked her back to her apartment complex, chatting along the way. Ren and Yuzuru signed to each other a "see you later," one of the signs that Ren had picked up on from his time with three sign language speakers.

* * *

"_Golden, huh?…_" he thought as he wished Ms. Ishida good night and walked back upstairs into Shoya's room.


	3. His Hero

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

Author's Note 4/20/20: I have been receiving a lot of requests to make Ren appear in Days and Years, which I couldn't agree more on. In order to do this, I am retconning a few things. I will try to change the story as little as possible. Feel free to reread for context! Thank you for all of the support, everyone :)

* * *

As a child, Yuzuru had been the stronger sibling. Yuzuru would always fight to protect her sister from bullies, even though Shoko was older. Yuzuru would throw rocks at the bullies and scare them away, even if they tried to hurt her instead. So when Yuzuru met, face to face, the single worst bully that Shoko had ever had to protect herself from, she threw her shield up and kept it up.

For a long time, Yuzuru despised Shoya Ishida. To her, Shoya just seemed like he wanted to serve himself and rid himself of guilt, like this was his only goal in getting to know Shoko. After a while of chasing Shoya away, getting him into trouble, or flat out attacking him, Yuzuru could see that he had no ulterior motives.

She began to have less of a need to protect Shoko, as Shoya seemed more than willing to do so. So instead, Yuzuru blossomed out. Yuzuru became close friends with Shoya, as well as his friend group. Although she may still be scary, she really brought her shield down.

So when she got home after studying with Ren for a while, she reflected on this. "_When did I get so damn soft?_" she thought, scolding herself. She hated that she let someone so new to her get so close to her. She pouted for a little while, but she got over it pretty soon. She spent a little while watching videos on the internet before falling asleep.

* * *

The next day, Yuzuru went about her routine normally, yet something felt off the whole day. As if out of nowhere, Yuzuru felt more talkative and less defensive. She didn't feel as strong of an urge to punch the people in her school that she found annoying. This was unknowingly caused by becoming so close to Ren.

Although Yuzuru herself was not aware of this, she had let her guard down when it comes to Shoko being bullied by other people, and raised it when it comes to Ren being a threat to himself. She no longer necessarily had to worry about other people, so she became much more friendly to them. She did, however, feel the need to worry about Ren, whose only real threat seemed to be his own stubbornness.

The only thing that Yuzuru was aware of was her transition into becoming soft. "_I'll show the world that I'm still tough as nails…_" she thought as she placed her books in her backpack and prepared for a study session.

* * *

After school, she headed to the Ishida residence, where Ren was sweeping while getting to know Shoya's sister, her husband, and her daughter. "Oh, hey, Yuzuru!" Ren said as he finished cleaning the hair up and set the broom down. "What's up with you?" he said, concerned about the look on her face.

"I… don't know what you're talking about." Yuzuru said with an artificial coldness as she walked up the stairs to go into Shoya's room. "_Was it something I said?…_" Ren thought as he dumped the hair into the trash can and asked for permission to go upstairs.

"Go on up, but I'd tread carefully if I were you!" Ms. Ishida warned, able to tell that Yuzuru was guarded right now.

* * *

Ren went upstairs to see why Yuzuru was inexplicably angry, as well as help her study. "Are you okay?" he asked, and Yuzuru nodded. "Oh, well you don't seem like you're okay." Ren said blatantly. "You know, you can tell me what's wrong, right?"

"Nothing is wrong!" Yuzuru said sharply, making Ren jump in surprise. Truthfully, there was nothing wrong; Yuzuru just wanted to appear more tough. She was poor at concealing it, though, because she started laughing at his worried expression. "Damn it, I was trying to look serious!" she said, both happy and frustrated. She spent a few minutes explaining her situation- how she wants to be tough like she used to, how she's gone soft, etc…

* * *

Ren stuck his tongue out. "Hypocrite!" and they both stood up aggressively, fire in their eyes.

"What do you mean, hypocrite?! You wanna fight or something?" Yuzuru said, as if ready to brawl.

"You've spent the past week scolding me when I tried to act tough and independent, but now you're doing the same thing! And I'd be more than glad to!" he said, just as ready to brawl.

They both got in each other's faces. Despite having a fierce look in his eyes, Ren averted eye contact with Yuzuru, and his flame died down. "What's wrong, you lost your fighting spirit or somethin'?" Yuzuru asked.

To Yuzuru's surprise, he nodded. "You're, like, really scary, you know?" he said, looking away. Yuzuru had a blank, astonished expression. "_So I've still got it!_" she thought ecstatically. "But more than that, you're cool. You're like a wolf, scary but awesome at the same time! ...What's with that goofy look?" he asked, pointing at her face.

Yuzuru had a very shaky, forced frown on her face. She obviously was trying to hide a smile. "N-nothing!" she said, and when Ren called her out for lying, she threatened to fight him again, but her frown broke into a smile, and she was forced to turn her head away. "You say really weird stuff, man." she said while trying to stop herself from laughing. Yuzuru was not used to compliments, even if they are strange compliments like the one Ren gave her. On top of this, she was glad that somebody still thought of her as "scary."

After straightening her face up, she looked back at Ren. "Well, it looks like you already can tell that I'm a badass, so I don't have to put on a mask to convince you."

"You aren't trying to convince me, you're trying to convince yourself!" Ren said accusingly. Yuzuru froze. She kept getting surprised by this small, timid boy. Time and again, he would deliver a blow that she could neither parry nor block, so she would just deliver a blow back. This time, he hit hard, as she didn't even realize that this was the case until he said it. "_What the… Damnit! He's right, he never needed convincing! I've been doing this for myself…_"

* * *

"You shouldn't have to remind yourself that you're badass, it's not like you ever won't be." Ren said, breaking the silence. "You know, I look up to you a lot, both physically and not" he said, referring to the fact that he was a little shorter than her and laughing. "I want to be tough like you, smart like you, kind like you, and be able to make friends like you. You don't have to fake any of that, cause I already know that you're super."

There was that word again. On top of all those other kind things that he said, Ren chose to use that word. "_Super…_" Yuzuru thought as she felt her face warm up. "Ahh, damn, damn! You're confusing me!" Yuzuru said as she smacked her head with her hand. She did not necessarily mean that his words were confusing. Instead, she was confusing herself with her reactions to his words.

"S-sorry…" Ren said nervously. He was scared that he had crossed a line or made things awkward. "Should we just start with studying now?" he offered, trying to diffuse the tension. She calmed down, sat down, and pulled out the textbook. They studied the material for a little while. In the duration of it, they exchanged glances, or more, Yuzuru kept looking at Ren, who would then look back. Yuzuru would then look away as if nothing had happened.

* * *

After they both got a better understanding of the homework, Yuzuru spoke up. "Ren." she said, popping any sort of thought bubble that Ren may have had. "Why are you so nice?"

Ren scratched his head. "Well, Yuzuru, I feel like I owe you a lot. Remember all those nice things I called you? Well, it's because I feel like you've helped me in all of those aspects… I feel tougher, smarter, and kinder cause of you, and I've made friends cause of you. You, Shoko, and Shoya are all my heroes! Though, I think you're definitely my favorite hero!"

Yuzuru had a flashback to a time when her grandmother complimented her. She expressed her gratefulness for "having such wonderful granddaughters." Yuzuru, for a long time, felt unworthy to be called "wonderful." She was harsh and vulgar; she spent her time taking photos of corpses, and she even took one of her grandmother moments after she passed. She failed to stop Shoko from attempting suicide. But right now, in front of her was the boy who she tried to intimidate but received heartfelt compliments from nonetheless, in the room of the person whom she tried to hate but became close friends with, she felt worthy of the praise her grandmother gave to her all that time ago. The memories and emotions came to her all too quickly, and for the first time in a long while, Yuzuru burst into tears in front of somebody else. "Ahhh, what?! What?! Yuzuru! Yuzuru!" Ren called out to her as he jumped up to see what was wrong.

* * *

After a few minutes of convincing him that she was indeed okay (which she actually believed to be true now), Ren stopped arguing when Yuzuru said that she should be heading home. "Hey, don't worry about it. Really, it was something completely unrelated!" she said to quell his last bit of worry. "Hey, I won't be able to come over tomorrow by the way." she said, changing the subject.

Ren broke into a sweat, worried about whether he had done something wrong. "I-is this unrelated too?" he asked nervously.

Yuzuru nodded. "I'm going to be going to laser tag!" she exclaimed.

Ren tilted his head a little. "What is _that_?"

* * *

It hadn't occurred to Yuzuru that there was anyone on the continent who didn't know what "laser tag" was, just until then. She just laughed at first, thinking he was joking, but she soon realized he wasn't. "O-oh, you're being for real?" she asked, feeling a little bad. "Well, it's like tag, but you use weapon-shaped flashlights. These lights are super thin, so you have to be precise in your shooting!"

Ren had a goofy, awed look on his face. "That sounds like a lot of fun! Once I turn fifteen and get a real job, please let me take you to laser tag!" he said, not realizing what that sounded like.

Yuzuru blushed, but she tried to hide it since he wouldn't even be aware of why she was blushing. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan! Speaking of which, when do you turn fifteen anyways?"

Ren thought hard. "Umm… I don't know." he said plainly. "I haven't ever had any sort of birthday celebration, so I guess I've been assuming I'm at least one year older each New Year." he laughed at how it sounded. "Well, I'd _have_ to be at least one year older, unless I just age slowly."

Yuzuru laughed. "Well, then you'll get a double-celebration on New Year's Day! And as a birthday present, I'll take you to laser tag!" she said kindly. Ren frowned and stuck his tongue out, not eager about the idea of letting someone pay so much on him for anything. Yuzuru just laughed about it.

* * *

Eventually, they made it back to the apartments, and Ren prepared to say goodbye. Yuzuru interrupted him, though. "Come here!" she said. She wanted to take a photo to remember today, since Yuzuru felt like she had made some sort of internal breakthrough. She wrapped one arm around him, pulling him in closely and taking her camera off of her shoulder. She snapped a photo of the both of them. She had recently asked people to take photos of her, but perhaps the first "selfie" she had ever taken herself. Ren blushed, and Yuzuru beamed a smile at him. "Hey, thank you for today, Ren. I know I was acting weird, but everything is all good now!"

Ren stared blankly for a moment. "No, thank you. And besides, it was fun, even if you were being weird! You're keeping me on my toes, I can never predict what you're gonna do next!"

Yuzuru had an idea. "Hmmm… you're right. I bet you weren't expecting this!" she exclaimed as she pulled out a marker and swiftly, deftly drew cat whiskers on one side of his face before he had time to react. "Haha! I'll see you the day after tomorrow, shorty!"

Ren stared at her as she walked back into the apartment complex. Before she walked back inside the door, he called out, saying, "I-I'm not short! Shorty!" Yuzuru turned around and laughed at him a little bit before shutting the door behind her.

* * *

As Ren walked back, he was sure to kick any rock he saw on the sidewalk. _"Jeez... the nerve of that_ girl..." he thought as he rubbed his cheek, which had been marked with whiskers. He laughed about it and looked up at the street lights as he passed them by. "_But maybe I'll miss her tomorrow, a little..._" He shook his head, dismissing the thought.

When he made it back to the Ishida residence, he was greeted by laughter from Maria, Shoya's niece. "Kitty!" she said, pointing at Ren's face.

Ms. Ishida was sitting down, reading an article online. "Oh, hi Ren! Nice tattoo!" she teased. "Oh, I got your money for today sitting on the counter!"

"Actually, about that…" Ren began to explain his new working situation. During the day, before work, he had actually made arrangements to work at a local grocery store, where he would tell anyone that he was fifteen. As a result, he would still work for Ms. Ishida during late hours, but early in the morning, he would work a real job. He wanted to work for free for Ms. Ishida, so he may be able to pay her back for everything she's given him. If anything, he would be paying her for always making him food, and Shoya, for always letting him sleep in his way, he wouldn't have to worry about Yuzuru, Shoko, and Shoya buying him an expensive sleeping bag. He would make around 14,000¥ every week, and he would split it up between Ms. Ishida, Shoya, and himself. Ms. Ishida would get 3,500¥, Shoya would get 3,500¥, leaving around 7,000¥ for Ren to spend.

* * *

After he went through this lengthy explanation, he bowed in gratitude. "Thank you so much for everything, I hope that you will continue to let me stay!"

"H-hey, Ren, are you sure?" she asked, not so sure. "Almost 4,000¥ every week is a lot! I understand you want to pay me back, but…" she broke off.

"P-please don't worry, ma'am! It's my way to thank you for your generosity! I vowed to pay you back as soon as you accepted me into your home!" he said, again overdoing it with formality. Ms. Ishida, although hesitant, was very willing to accept the money, as Ren had been either an extra mouth to feed or an employee to pay for the past week or so.

* * *

Ren walked upstairs after eating and thanking her again for her generosity. He sighed and laid down on his cot. "_The Ishidas are more of a family than I've ever had before, I hope I can call Ms. Ishida 'mom,' one day, and maybe Shoya 'big bro'..." he glanced over at Shoya, who was sleeping. "Shoko seems like a big sister, or something, I guess..._" he thought as he stared at the dark ceiling. "_But where would that leave Yuzuru?_"

Blushing, he shook his head and tried to go to sleep. "_I think I know exactly where that leaves Yuzuru…_" he thought, embarrassed. He thought of Yuzuru as a really good friend, but what if one day they were more? He turned over and buried his face into his pillow. After convincing himself that there was nothing to worry about, he shut his eyes.

* * *

When he woke up the next morning, it was time to get up and get ready for work; _real_ work. He changed his clothes, brushed his teeth, and got himself ready for the long day ahead, all while carefully maneuvering around the room so that he didn't wake up the resting Shoya.

He walked down to the market, where one of the ladies he had talked to before about work brought him a uniform and instructed him on what to do and where to go. As Ren was stocking the shelves, he felt content. He was doing _real _work to pay back the people who had given him everything.

After working for around four hours, he clocked out and headed to the Ishida residence, where he spent the next three hours helping Ms. Ishida with sweeping. After taking a break to eat something, as he scarcely even had a breakfast, Ms. Ishida asked "Hey, Ren, could you run this bag over to the Nishimiyas?" she asked, holding a bag of groceries. Ren knew where the apartment complex was, so he would easily be able to find the apartment, especially since it had a name plate next to the door.

* * *

He spent twelve minutes walking over to the apartment complex and another ten searching for the actual apartment. At last, he found it. He knocked on the door, and a very serious, cold, scary, and somehow beautiful looking woman answered the door. "Yes? Can I help you?" she asked quickly, as if Ren were wasting her time.

"Th-this is from Ms. Ishida!" Ren said as he held the bag out and gave a bow at the same time.

Ms. Nishimiya stared at Ren. "You work for Ms. Ishida? So you must be the boy who was over here a week ago." she said, in a tone that was hard for Ren to read her emotions from. It was neither caring nor uncaring.

"Y-yes, ma'am! Thank you very much for allowing me to stay, you saved my life!" he said, bowing again. "_What is it with these kids and bowing…_" Ms. Nishimiya thought, recalling back to a recent encounter she had with Shoya, as she took the bag from Ren.

"There is no need for such formality." she said. "Ren… thank you for hanging out with Yuzuru. She's talked more at the dinner table than she has in _months_. Mostly, she talks about you." she said, staring him in the eyes. "So keep doing what you're doing." she said, and she thought to herself, "_I'm glad that there are boys who exist who can make my daughters happy._"

Ren blushed and bowed again, out of habit. "Y-yes, ma'am! Thank you for raising her to be such a brave and kind person, she is my hero!" he said confidently.

Ms. Nishimiya raised an eyebrow. "If you say so. I'll be sure to tell her that when she gets back from laser tag."

* * *

Ren said a polite goodbye and ran back to the Ishida residence, where he quickly splashed his face with cold water. "_Such a terrifying mother of a terrifying daughter…_" he thought as he caught his breath.

By the time that Yuzuru and Shoko had returned from laser tag, their mother was asleep, but she left a sticky-note on the fridge.

_Ren stopped by today, so I was able to meet him for the first time. I must say that I approve of him. He says that you're his hero, Yuzuru._

Yuzuru blushed and took it off of the fridge, hiding it behind her back. But it was too late. "Aww, Yuju! Sho cute!" Shoko said with a knowing smile on her face.


	4. Camera

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

Author's Note 4/20/20: I have been receiving a lot of requests to make Ren appear in Days and Years, which I couldn't agree more on. In order to do this, I am retconning a few things. I will try to change the story as little as possible. Feel free to reread for context! Thank you for all of the support, everyone :)

* * *

The next morning, Ren woke up from daylight filtering through the window. He sat up in his cot and looked around, wondering just how many people were awake already. In the opposite end of the room, he saw Shoya snoozing lightly, his phone in his hand, his hair messy, and his mouth drooling.

"_Ahh... I wish I could sleep like that... But I have work to do!_" Ren thought as he got up and got dressed for work. He walked downstairs quietly and left through the backdoor, so that the doorbell wouldn't jingle. He walked to the grocery store and got to work, stocking shelves, pushing carts, and running the cash register.

* * *

While Ren was working, some familiar and new faces showed up to buy groceries. First, a few hours into his shift Ren saw Shoya and Shoko together. They were picking up a can of milk tea and green tea, respectively before going out on a date. Naturally, The two went to Ren's register to check out. "Hey, man! I didn't know you worked here, I thought you worked for my mom!" he said curiously.

Ren nodded. "I still do, but I don't want to be a leech. I started working so I could pay your mom for food and you for letting me sleep in your room." he said quietly, since he doubted that Shoya would want to accept any payment. Shoya, as Ren predicted, voiced this opinion, but Ren stayed headstrong. "Please? It's like rent, right? If you don't want it, you can give it to your mother."

Shoya sighed. "Well, I'll see. Just don't break your bank, okay? You need the money more than I do." he said as he finished paying for the two of them and cracked open his milk tea. "I'll see you later, man." he said as he walked by. "_Ahh, please just accept the money, Shoya… I don't wanna be a parasite, man..._" Ren thought to himself as Shoya passed him and waited by the door.

Shoko remained near the cash register though; clearly she had something to say. "Wen, than 'uh for 'elping Yujuwuh study. She did really well on 'er ejams! (Ren, thank you for helping Yuzuru study. She did really well on her exams!)" she said with a bow, before walking back up to Shoya and grasping his hand. They all signed a "later." "_Huh... that's awesome!_" Ren thought as he got back to work.

* * *

Ren continued to man the cash register. About forty minutes after Shoya left, Ms. Nishimiya entered with Yuzuru in tow. "_Ahh, there's Yuzuru, and… her terrifying mother._" he thought as the sliding automatic doors closed behind them. The two seemed to be preoccupied with shopping, but Yuzuru saw no reason to let shopping interfere with fun. Her mother shrugged, as if to say, "Go ahead."

Ren bowed a hello to the two, and Yuzuru came over. "Hey! I heard Shoko came by earlier, she said that you two talked for a bit!"

Ren nodded. "Yeah, she told me that you did really well on your exams. That's really amazing news, dude!" Ren said excitedly.

Yuzuru confidently pointed at herself. "What Shoko forgot to mention was, that I got first place!" she said with a bright smile. Ren's eyes widened. "_Woah, that's crazy! I would've never guessed she was so smart just from the time we spent studying together..._" he thought. He made the right choice, not voicing his thoughts, since they would probably get him beat up. After Ren congratulated her again, Yuzuru ran to catch up with her mom, so that she didn't lose her patience.

* * *

Ms. Nishimiya came by his lane to check out the groceries. As he scanned them, she spoke up. "So, Ren, what school do you go to?" she asked calmly.

Ren blinked and stared for a second. "U-um, I haven't gone to school in a little while..." he said nervously. He was terrified of the judgment that would get him.

Ms. Nishimiya smiled. "I see. Neither did Yuzuru, for a while. I hope you settle on a high school soon, though." she said as she picked up her bagged groceries and began to walk outside. "Come on, Yuzuru. You'll see him later, I'm sure."

Yuzuru followed but turned around to face Ren. She mouthed out an "I'm sorry!" without actually speaking aloud.

* * *

Ren continued work for just over another three hours, after which he walked back to the Ishida residence. "_Just a few more days and I'll get my first paycheck!_" he thought excitedly as he walked, anxious to pay back Ms. Ishida and Shoya. After a few more hours of work, he went upstairs to relax. Shoya was out, probably with Shoko. "_I'll bet that Yuzuru is out too…_" Ren thought as he got comfortable on his cot. He kicked himself for worrying about that.

Time flew, as days repeated like this. He would occasionally see Shoya or the Nishimiyas at the store, and several times, Yuzuru would just walk down to the store by herself. At the end of the week, Ren anxiously went up to collect his earnings, which were cash. He waited to count the money until he got back into the Ishida residence, where he opened the envelope that held the money within. "Woah! So much money!" Ren said excitedly as he flashed the notes in front of his face. He handed Ms. Nishimiya her money, which she was hesitant to take, and left Shoya his, since he was currently at college. Ren counted the money he had reserved to himself; it was more than he expected. He had around 9,100¥ to spend on himself. He knew exactly what he wanted- a smartphone!

* * *

Though Ren had been aware of smartphones for most of his life (that he can remember), he has never once even touched one or held one in his hands. Ren was always scared of breaking something that was valuable because he felt like he would never be able to afford to reimburse the owner. When he would see Shoya using his phone, Ren realized just how practical they were; especially since he could contact his friends with one.

Yuzuru came over that night, and Shoya was currently out with Shoko. "Hey, Yuzuru!" Ren said, greeting her with a smile. "Guess what I got today!" he said, holding his remaining money out in front of himself, displaying it for Yuzuru.

"Woah! Just how much did you work this week?" she asked, legitimately impressed.

Ren rubbed the back of his neck. "I lost count… but that's not important! Will you take me somewhere I can get a cool new phone?" Ren asked politely. Yuzuru couldn't refuse, she agreed to do so, and the two departed immediately. "So, how much do these cost, huh?" Ren asked innocently.

"Around 7,000¥ for a decent one, I'd say." Yuzuru said with her finger on her chin. "But you have plenty, right?"

Ren sighed, knowing that he would probably be completely out of money after today. "Y-yeah…" he said despondently. "I'll be fine!"

The two walked for a little bit, chit chatting back and forth. Suddenly, something popped into Ren's head. "H-hey, Yuzuru! When is your birthday?" he asked, abruptly.

"That's a secret!" Yuzuru said with a mischievous grin. "You aren't subtle, I can tell that you want to get me some sort of present. Well, it's sweet, but no way am I gonna let you spend your hard-earned money on me!"

Ren blushed. "B-but you said you'd be treating me to laser tag! It's only fair that I do something for you…" he said, looking away shyly.

Yuzuru blushed, but her tone didn't change. "Doesn't matter, you're going to have fun on your birthday, which is super soon! Why not focus on your own instead of mine?"

The two talked about it for a few more minutes about it until they "agreed" that Yuzuru is right and cannot be challenged. Of course, deep down, Ren knew that he would still buy her something, but he was still too timid to admit that in front of Yuzuru.

* * *

Also on the way to the phone store, a subject that had been on Yuzuru's mind had came up. "Hey, Ren... don't answer this if you don't want to, but I'm curious." she began. "You said you went to school before, what's up with that?" She asked the question nervously, as if Ren can and might break just from hearing it.

Ren rubbed his chin thoughtfully, something that relieved Yuzuru, who was worried that he'd look sad instead of thoughtful. "Well, um..." Ren began, but he slowed himself to articulate his words. "The thing is, I did. I went to school up until last year. I was actually a grade ahead of everyone else. So now that I'm homeless- er- was, was homeless, for a little while- I decided to take a break. I probably should save up and go back, but it's too late, I think..." He said the last part a little sadly, making Yuzuru want to drop the subject.

* * *

After considerably more lighthearted chatting, they got to the phone store, and Yuzuru helped Ren pick out a phone with a good plan at a decent price. He ended up getting one that had unlimited talk and text, for a small fee every month. They also got Ren a nice charger for it. After those purchases, Ren had around 800¥ left in his pocket. Ironically, they spent a majority of the last chunk of money on a new wallet for Ren to carry his next paycheck in.

The two walked back to the Ishida household, where Ren excitedly showed off his new phone to Ms. Ishida before heading back upstairs with Yuzuru in tow. "Thank you, thank you Yuzuru!" Ren said excitedly beaming with joy.

Yuzuru smiled back. "No problem, I didn't really do anything!" she said with a laugh.

* * *

The next week followed a similar pattern as the previous week, with three main differences. One difference was that Ren had his "birthday" closing in on him. Ren was adamant that he didn't even need to play laser tag, despite how fun it sounded. Yuzuru, of course, ignored this and threatened violence if he continued to act like that. The second difference was that Ren had to figure out how to best use his phone. Ren had trouble surfing the internet and connecting to WiFi. He got Shoya's phone number so he could text him easily, but he had yet to ask for Yuzuru's number. "_That could've been… risky, to say the least…_" he thought, when, one night, he was on the verge of asking her. The last difference was that Ren was practicing sign language with Shoya.

Ren went to go collect his earnings on Saturday afternoon, after having worked for four hours prior. This time, he put all of his money in his wallet, where it was safely stored. He walked back to the Ishida household, paid the Ishidas, and left.

* * *

Yuzuru was out, scouting. She knew of a local laser tag place, but this was not the matter at hand. She wanted to find ingredients to make Ren a bunch of sweets, as well as whatever food that he expressed interest in within the next week. Yuzuru had many people funding her efforts; Ms. Ishida, Shoya, Shoko, and her mom all pitched in to make Ren's birthday celebration, which would be soon, a reality. On top of this, they would have a formal celebration of the New Year.

Yuzuru found ingredients for chocolate cake, as Ren seemed to enjoy chocolate things quite a lot. She also picked up noodles for the New Year's celebration. After her items were bagged, she got a notification on her phone. "_Huh… somebody's at the door…_" she thought as she read it. She walked back to her apartment, her grocery bags in her hands, and she pressed the button for the elevator to come down. The door opened, and out walked Ren. "A-ah…" Ren began to say as he quickly shoved his phone into his pocket. He nervously backed up into the corner of the elevator.

"R-Ren? So you're the one who rung the doorbell! What's wrong?" Yuzuru asked, also hiding what she had in her hands, but behind her back. Ren shook his head; he looked like a deer in headlights. "What were you doing?" she asked suspiciously.

Ren broke out into a sweat. "Please, I was just looking for my… phone!" he said, pulling it out of his pocket and displaying that it had been "found."

Yuzuru frowned. "Just tell the truth before you regret bold-faced lying to me." she commanded, obviously aware that Ren was lying through his teeth. "You better not have been doing anything stupid, cause if you were, I'll punch you." she warned, as he inched his way past her, out of the elevator.

"I-I won't regret it!" he said shyly then jubilantly, as he began bolting out of and away from the apartment building. "_Yes! Everything worked out well!_"

* * *

Earlier, Ren was visiting the Nishimiya household. He did not know the other two Nishimiyas well, and he knew that Yuzuru was out doing _something_. However, this did not stop him from his intended goals; he was actually trying to _avoid_ Yuzuru for once. After he paid the Ishidas his weekly dues, explained to Ms. Ishida where he was going.

"Excuse me!" Ren said to get her attention. "While there is nobody in the shop, may I go to the Nishimiya residence? I have to act quickly, while Yuzuru is still out…" he added.

"Oh? Well that's quite alright, business is moving slowly today! Please, do be safe, Ren!" she said.

"Thank you, Ms. Ishida! I'll be back soon!" he said as he ran out of the door. He walked over to the apartment complex, careful to look out for Yuzuru. If he saw Yuzuru at all, his plan could be ruined for the day. The coast seemed to be clear everywhere he looked, so he proceeded. He made his way to the door and knocked. "_Aw, crap… Shoko won't be able to hear it..._" Ren thought, wondering what to do. He saw a doorbell, which seemed to include fancy technology within. He pressed it, wondering if it made some sort of visual alert within.

* * *

Shoko, who was sitting in her room, texting Shoya, got a notification on her phone. "_Your house has a visitor!_" it said, notifying her that somebody had rung the doorbell. She walked over to the door and looked out of the peephole to see who it was. "_Ren's here?_" she thought as she pulled open the door. "Ahh, sowwy, Yuju izzn' here... (Ahh, sorry, Yuzu isn't here...)" Shoko said.

Ren, in his best sign language, signed. "_No._" with a smile. Shoko gasped. She signed back, asking him, "_How did you learn sign language so fast?_" and he paused. He was nowhere near fluent in it, but he knew some basics. He scratched his head, trying to remember. "_Sho...ya_" he signed back. Shoko giggled. It made her really happy that not only was Ren bothering to learn, but Shoya was kind enough to teach him. "Then whass up, Wen? (Then what's up, Ren?)" Shoko asked.

Ren's reason for coming to the apartment came up. "Ah…" he said out loud as he struggled to remember how to ask this. "_When is Yuzuru's birthday?_" he signed, blushing a little at it. He knew that Yuzuru would never tell him himself, so Shoko could be a reliable source of information. Shoko giggled at him and smiled. She told him and gave him a knowing look. Ren, who didn't notice the look, immediately took his phone out and copied the information into it. "_February 25! It's so far away!_" he thought as he signed a "_Thank you,_" and a "_See you later!_" to Shoko. "_Damn, I'm so lucky that she was home!_" he thought, realizing that she just as easily could've been with Shoya.

He ran to the elevator, where, upon his planned exit, he ran into Yuzuru. He crammed his phone into his pocket, to hide the fact that he was downloading a calendar app, and he ran out as soon as he could. Yuzuru was obviously suspicious of whatever Ren was doing, but she couldn't chase after him and risk letting him see what it was that _she_ was doing. Instead, when she got up to her apartment, she opened the door to a grinning Shoko. "_What was he over here for?_" she asked while signing. Shoko had a knowing, smug look on her face, but she asked right back, "'Oo? Ah don' know 'oo 'ou're talkinn about! (Who? I don't know who you're talking about!)"

* * *

For the next week or so, Ren made trips to the Nishimiya household, where he would talk to Shoko, who was helping him with ideas for Yuzuru's birthday celebration, despite the fact that it was so far away. For the very near event of Christmas, Shoko helped him with present ideas, and for the far event of Yuzuru's birthday, Shoko helped him with celebration ideas. From what Ren gathered, Yuzuru absolutely loved her camera, and she liked to have fun. She was very easy to please; whether it was the fair, the circus, laser tag, or even a movie, Ren could take her somewhere and she would very likely enjoy herself.

As it was mentioned previously, Yuzuru's birthday was several months away, but Ren wanted to at least get her a Christmas present. Ren looked around town, trying to find out where Yuzuru's camera came from. He planned on getting her a new lens, so that she could take pictures in different qualities of light. Yuzuru spotted him walking around while she was grocery shopping for last minute preparations (Ren's birthday party was in just a week). She started to quietly follow him, careful not to let him see her.

"_Why does he always look so suspicious?_" Yuzuru thought as he got close to an electronics store. Before entering, he looked around and spotted Yuzuru. "Aw, shit..." Yuzuru mumbled as she walked up to him like nothing was off. "Yo, Ren! What're you up to?" she said, walking up to him.

Ren was holding a piece of paper in his hand, but he crammed it into his pocket. "O-oh, I was just looking for a phone case!" he said. "Do you wanna help me find one?" he asked, and Yuzuru of course obliged. Yuzuru pointed out some high-quality ones, but Ren didn't seem keen on buying any of them. He made an excuse for why one was insufficient, but he would deny one that has whatever the previous one lacked. "S-sorry for wasting your time, maybe I don't want a phone case today…" he said, looking at the ground. "_Something is definitely up with him…_" Yuzuru thought as he walked her home.

* * *

The next day, Yuzuru had a plan of attack. Yuzuru knew that Shoya was out with Shoko, so she had the perfect opportunity to strike. When she went up to the Ishida residence to see Ren, she decided that she was going to solve this mystery, as well as figure out what Ren kind of things Ren liked to eat. "Hey, Ren!" she said cheerfully. "Can you do me a favor? I'm going to be out of town tomorrow, my sister is taking me shopping. Nobody will be home to watch my camera, and Shoya will have class. Can you please keep it safe with you?" she implored.

Ren nodded, but he said, "I don't mind, but wouldn't it be safe at home? I mean, your apartment probably wouldn't get broken into!"

Yuzuru shrugged. "Well, I can't be sure, that's just the thing." This was a lie, and though Ren thought the area didn't seem like the type to have lots of crime, he did not personally know anyone in the apartments except for the Nishimiyas, who were amazing people, so he was biased.

Yuzuru clicked her camera. "Keep it charged overnight!" she said as she handed him the cord to ensure that he did so. "And when you go somewhere, please bring it with you!" Ren agreed to all of this, completely unaware that the camera was on, recording what was in front of it. Conveniently for Yuzuru, when Shoya got back from hanging out with Shoko, he fell asleep without realizing that the camera was on, and Ren left with it before he even woke up.

* * *

Yuzuru really was going out shopping with her sister. She was going to get a yukata for the New Year's celebration, even though she was furious about having to get one. This was convenient to tell Ren, since he would probably go shopping since he would know that Yuzuru would be gone and therefore not have a chance of catching him out and about in town.

Yuzuru spent around two hours after school shopping with Shoko, who picked out a yukata that even Yuzuru liked. It was black and red- two of her favorite colors. After they acquired the yukata, they boarded a public train to get back to town, and they began to walk to the Ishida residence, where Yuzuru would pick up her camera and thank Ren for protecting it. "Ms. Ishida, I'm here!" Yuzuru called out.

Shoya came downstairs, hearing Yuzuru. Ms. Ishida spoke up, saying. "Oh, Yuzuru. Shoya's upstairs, but I haven't seen Ren..."

* * *

Yuzuru went upstairs, looking for Ren. She called out Ren's name, but only Shoya responded. "I thought he was with you, he hasn't been home all day…" Shoya said rubbing his shoulder, now worried. Shoya slipped on some shoes and pulled out his phone to text Ren. "Ah, shoot, his phone isn't even with him!" Shoya said, pointing towards Ren's phone, which was still plugged into the wall.

The two walked back downstairs and asked Ms. Ishida if he had gone anywhere. She suddenly got a worried expression. "He did say that he would be shopping, but he didn't say where he was going…" she said with a confused and concerned tone. She turned her car key, and they set out on searching. "I'm so sorry, I should've been more attentive! But I'm sure he's alright!" Ms. Ishida said to calm down her passengers, who were obviously distressed. Ms. Ishida couldn't help but feel distressed herself.

* * *

Yuzuru had a good idea of where he would be, so she gave the instructions to Ms. Ishida. They were going to an electronics store, the one that Yuzuru spotted him acting suspiciously at a few days prior. When they got to the store, Yuzuru was the only one who went inside. "Excuse me! Have you seen a boy, slightly shorter than me, very thin?" she asked, describing Ren to the clerk.

"Oh, yeah! He just came by twenty minutes ago, asking about a lens." the cashier informed her. "Where he is now, I don't know, sorry." he added.

Yuzuru frowned. "_He was trying to buy me a present…_" she thought. She thanked the cashier, and as she did so, she heard the door open abruptly. Into the store burst Shoya. "Yuzuru! Come quick!" he yelled, and Yuzuru followed, picking up on the urgency of the situation. She followed Shoya, who led her into an alley, where Ms. Ishida was tending to somebody.

* * *

The person was curled into a ball, covered in bruises, scraped all up. "_Oh… god…_" Yuzuru thought as she stepped forward slowly, and her worried eyes welled up with tears. Ms. Ishida was trying her best to get the person to look up, but they would not budge. "Hey, come on, it's me… please, come with us…" she said, her voice breaking and herself starting to cry. Shoya had also been trying to get the person to budge, to no avail.

"Ren…" Yuzuru said with a choked-up voice. "I-it's me, Ren. It's Yuzuru…"

Upon hearing Yuzuru's voice, the bruised mess, who was Ren, shifted himself to be on his butt. Before, he was on his forearms and knees, surprisingly not covering his head, but something else. He looked up at Yuzuru with one eye, as the other was bruised and swollen shut. Blood from his nose covered the bottom half of his face, as well as his shirt. His pockets were turned out, meaning his money was all gone.

Despite all of this apparent agony, he had a grin on his face when he saw Yuzuru. "Yuzuru… I kept it safe…" he muttered before passing out. In his arms was Yuzuru's camera, the green light still on, still recording, and still in one piece.


	5. Sleeping In

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

Author's Note 4/20/20: I have been receiving a lot of requests to make Ren appear in Days and Years, which I couldn't agree more on. In order to do this, I am retconning a few things. I will try to change the story as little as possible. Feel free to reread for context! Thank you for all of the support, everyone :)

* * *

Ren was back at the electronics store, asking about types of lenses with the cashier. "So, what types of lenses would go really well with this camera?" he asked, lifting Yuzuru's Nikon camera up for the cashier to see. The two discussed the different types, and Ren settled on the one that he would be saving up for. He would be getting her a wide angle lens, so that she could take pictures up-close without losing any detail.

As he walked out, with this in his mind, he fumbled around with the camera, wondering what it looked like from the photographer's point of view. Unfortunately, this garnered some unwanted attention. "Hey, kid. Nice camera, mind if I borrow it?" a tall stranger asked. He was accompanied by other tall adults.

"Ah, sorry, I'm supposed to protect this at all costs." he replied, and this is when it got physical. The man reached out and tried to take the camera from him, but Ren bit his hand, forcing him to let go. Ren bolted into an alley, trying to escape this perilous situation, but he didn't realize that he was cornering himself until it was too late. Of course, when he turned around, he was met with a volley of punches and kicks, so he curled into a ball to protect the camera.

They tried to steal the camera still, but they gave up after a few minutes of Ren not budging. "Ah, screw it. Just take everything else…" one of them said. They looted his wallet, which had almost 10,000¥ in it. They turned around to leave him alone, but the original one, conscious of the pain in his hand from where Ren bit it, turned back around and kicked him in the side of the face, giving him a nosebleed and knocking him out.

* * *

"Huh?" Ren muttered as he woke up from having been knocked out. He was in the back of Ms. Ishida's car, which he had only ever seen, never touched. "What happened…" he asked, rubbing his head, which stung to touch, making him recoil.

"Ren…" Yuzuru started to say, but she was too choked up to manage anything else.

Ms. Ishida spoke up. "Ren, we are taking you to Ms. Nishimiya's apartment. She works at a hospital, and she's volunteered to help you after Yuzuru told her what happened."

Ren laid his head back. "Huh? Help? But I still don't get it, I'm fine…" he said weakly, making Shoya turn around.

"Ren, I'm going to start walking you to and from work, okay?" he said shakily. Shoya had begun to feel like an older brother to Ren, and he felt like he had to protect him. "Oh, and I'll tell your boss that you'll be out for a few days."

"O-out?! No, I gotta work! I can't pay you back if I don't work! I can't get-" he began to say, but he stopped himself, realizing that Yuzuru was in the car. Of course, he didn't know that Yuzuru already knew what he was going to be getting her, so he still intended on buying the lens with the purpose of pleasantly surprising her.

"Look, you are in no shape to work, okay?" Shoya said. "Yuzuru will let you work as soon as you get better." he said, gesturing towards Yuzuru, whom Shoya knew Ren was somewhat scared of. Ren glanced at Yuzuru, but instead of looking scary or imposing, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Shoya cleared his throat. "A-anyways, just don't try to go anywhere, okay? I'll bring your phone over in a little bit."

Shoko looked over to him. "Wen... please let uzz 'help you." she said, in a tone more demanding than Ren had ever heard her.

Ren nodded his head and closed his eyes. The pain and soreness made him fall asleep for the rest of the car ride. As soon as he fell asleep, Shoko reached over and held Yuzuru's hand. Shoya looked back and gave a sad look. Yuzuru was shaking and unsuccessfully trying to hold back tears. Seeing all of this from the rearview mirror, Ms. Ishida said, "Dear... everything is going to be alright. Take it easy on him for the next while, but take it easy on yourself, too." she said, glancing from the road to Yuzuru's reflection every few seconds. At this, Yuzuru let her tears flow out.

* * *

After they got to the apartment complex, Shoya and Yuzuru helped carry Ren, who, after insisting that he could walk, collapsed while stepping out of the car. They carried him onto the elevator, and into the Nishimiya residence, where Shoko immediately went to get a warm towel to wipe his bloodied face. "Ah uh ogay? (Are you okay?)" she asked quietly, seeing the ragged state he was in. Ren nodded, but at this point, even the headstrong boy knew that it wasn't true. Shoya and Shoko spent a few minutes trying to comfort Ren while Yuzuru drew a hot bath for him.

* * *

Shoya departed to get Ren's phone, and the Nishimiya girls helped carry the weak boy to the bathroom. "I-I'll take it from here…" Ren said as he shut the bathroom door. "I'll holler if I need anything." He got undressed and soaked his body in the tub for a little while. "_Damn, everything kinda hurts…_" he thought as he scrubbed himself down. He let the water soothe his aching muscles for a while before pulling the drain plug and, with effort, standing up and drying off. "Y-Yuzuru?" he called out to her.

"Yeah?" she called back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just need some clothes…" Ren replied shyly.

Yuzuru went to go get Ren some clothes, but of course they had to be from her closet. Nobody else in the household wore boy's clothes, or even wore clothes that small. Yuzuru blushed a little while picking them out, since she knew that Ren would be wearing her clothes. She walked back to the bathroom, and knocked. "Are you decent?" she asked, and upon confirmation, she entered the bathroom. She instinctively looked away from him, since, towel or not, he was shirtless. Ren thanked her and got dressed once the door was shut.

* * *

Yuzuru slumped against the wall. "_It's all my fault… I'm a monster…_" she thought as tears began to come to her eyes. Ren opened the door, now dressed in clothes that were very slightly too big for him. "Th-thank you so much…" Ren said politely. She helped him walk to the bedroom, where Shoko had laid out a cot for him to sleep on. He signed "_Thank you_," to Shoko, and laid down. Shoko went to get him some food and water, since he seemed to have lost a lot of energy. Meanwhile, Yuzuru stayed by his side.

"Yuzuru, I'm really sorry for being a burden like this…" he said sadly.

Ironically, the sad one was Yuzuru. She, for the second time today, broke down and started crying, and said through the tears, "N-No! I'm the b-burden! I did this to you…" She went on to explain the idea she had for her camera, how she never wanted him to spend so much money on her, and how she wished that she could rewrite the past. Ren listened attentively, but Ren could only focus on how sad he felt for making her cry.

* * *

Shoko interrupted the heartbreaking scene, since she didn't even know what was going on. "Sh-shnacks? (S-snacks?)" she asked, setting the tea and snacks down on Yuzuru's bedside table before bowing. "Pwease rest soon... (Please rest soon)" she said like a worried mother before turning around and walking back out. Ren and Yuzuru couldn't help but smile at Shoko's sweetness.

Ren spoke up again. "Yuzuru… I forgive you, so please don't cry. I'm just glad that I protected your camera… Shoya told me that that thing is more important to you than anything else in this world, haha…" he said, not sure why he was suddenly feeling sad. He noticed that he had been staring at the ceiling, so he sat up to see Yuzuru's expression. She seemed like she was on the verge of tears, once again. Suddenly, that expression changed to one of panic.

"R-Ren!" she said in a panicked tone. "Ahh, shit!" she exclaimed as she got up and ran out. Ren was confused as to what she was talking about, but he noticed it soon enough. Blood was flowing out of his nose, just as it had done when he was kicked in the face, probably no more than thirty minutes ago. Ren leaned his head back to stop the blood from flowing so quickly, giving Yuzuru more time to get back. She got back soon enough to plug his nose before too much blood got onto Yuzuru's shirt that he was wearing.

* * *

"I'm really sorry for ruining your shirt" Ren said. Yuzuru wasn't saying much, because of the awkward situation she had been placed in. "_Maybe this is God's revenge on me for embarrassing Shoya so much…_" she thought. Yuzuru was so embarrassed due to the fact that Ren _just took his shirt off_. "I feel like I shouldn't have sat up so quickly…" he said.

"N-no, don't worry about it." Yuzuru replied without looking at Ren. She went to get a warm washcloth for him. "Look, don't make this any more awkward for me than it has to be…" Yuzuru said as she slowly wiped Ren's face down, cleaning the blood from off of his nose, chin, and neck. He kept flinching, but he stayed quiet. She finished cleaning him up and sat back. "Look, I know you said you forgive me, but you really shouldn't… I just wish you let them take the camera instead…"

"What? No way! This is your camera, nobody is gonna take it on my watch!" Ren said assertively, and Yuzuru smiled.

"Well, thank you Ren… you really are golden…" Yuzuru said as she stood up to get Ren the food and drinks from her nightstand. Ren blushed fiercely. "_Golden…_" he thought as he laid back and covered his torso with a blanket, since it was now burning from the blush. "Is something wrong?" Yuzuru asked, and Ren shook his head.

* * *

The two talked for a while. Shoko came back in to check on Ren and bring him some painkillers. Ren was very thankful for Shoko's kindness. Ms. Nishimiya, when she got back home, sat down and talked for a moment with the three. She made sure that Ren was alright, and she offered to get him anything. "Thank you for protecting the camera, Ren…" she said sadly. "I don't know if Yuzuru told you this, but she got it from her late grandmother, and my mother, so it's very important to all of us." Shoko just kind of politely smiled, glancing from face to face, unsure whether the conversation was going good or bad, since her mother always had a stern face. She relaxed at Yuzuru's snickering.

After the others left, Ren ate slowly, but he got the food down. After he was done eating, he expected to be able to fall asleep easily, but he found that he was unable to. Yuzuru, for one was tired. "What's wrong, man?" she asked tiredly from her bed. She was laying down, scrolling on her phone, but she could hear him toss and turn and see him constantly running his hands through his hair. "Something's bothering you, right? Is there more blood?"

* * *

Ren tossed and turned, then faced Yuzuru. "Umm… yeah, I'm having a little trouble falling asleep…" he said, embarrassed. "Don't worry about it, I'll be fine!" he said, trying to reassure her.

Yuzuru was not easily convinced. "You still seem wide awake, man…" she said, not wanting to put up with his stubbornness at this hour. "I would get you medicine, but you've already taken some. Do you need food or something?"

"N-no, it's too embarrassing. Please, don't worry about it!" Ren said as he turned back over and ran his hands through his hair, a habit that Yuzuru had never seen him do.

"Is your hair _that _soft?" Yuzuru asked, teasing him.

He turned around and stuck his tongue out. "No, it just helps me sleep when I do this, or at least it used to…" he said sadly, as if he desperately wished he could just be asleep right now.

* * *

Yuzuru stayed quiet for a little bit. Ren was facing away from her, but she could see that he was still running his hands through his hair, trying to force himself to sleep. A sudden thought made her blush and her heart beat quicker. "_Should… I try?..." _she thought for a moment. She shook her head, dismissing the idea, and laid down. For the next twelve or so minutes, Ren tossed and turned. Clearly, passing out had messed up his sleep schedule, and even without that, thinking about the events of the day had kept him up. Yuzuru could no longer stand it.

Yuzuru bit the bullet and slowly stepped out of her bed. Apparently, Ren couldn't hear her, so she was able to sneak up on him without a hitch. She kneeled down next to him, and upon feeling the movement, Ren turned over and gasped. "J-jeez! Wh-what's wrong, Yuzuru?" he asked.

Yuzuru sat down and sighed. "I can tell that you won't be able to fall asleep normally. So lay down on your stomach." she said commandingly.

"Wh-what? I'm perfectly comfortable, in fact I was about to fa-" he began, but Yuzuru cut him off.

"Lay on your back or I'm going to start tickling you." she said without an ounce of joking in her tone. Despite the funny nature of what she ordered, Ren was too scared of her tone to disobey, so he flipped onto his stomach, his blushing face cocked, turning away from her.

* * *

"I never did this, and if anyone ever asks you, I never did this. If you tell someone I did this, which I never did, I won't talk to you ever again." Yuzuru said as she crawled over to Ren. Ren gulped and nodded in approval, but he was not entirely sure what it was that he was nodding for. Yuzuru suddenly began to run her hands through his hair, massaging his scalp, even scratching it a little bit with her nails. It was obvious just by Ren doing it that that would help him fall asleep. Yuzuru's logic was, "_Maybe he can't fall asleep right now if he's the one doing it?_"

Each time Yuzuru's fingers touched his hair, Ren felt a wave of relief and exhaustion come over him. Before passing out, he muttered, "Thank you…"

Yuzuru continued to comb his hair with her fingers, even after she was confident that he was completely out cold. "_I'm such a creep…_" she thought, embarrassed that she felt so nice running her hands through his hair. This was perhaps not the first time that Yuzuru felt a little closer to Ren than "just friends," but it certainly was the first time that she acted on these feelings. She spent around another twenty minutes, just feeling his hair. Its smooth, slightly curly texture made Yuzuru wish that she could do this more often. "_Maybe I'll pull a Sho-… well… maybe not…_" she thought as she considered acting further on her feelings. She stood up and went back to her own bed, where she stayed awake for a little while, feeling disgust for her own creepy actions in concept and love for them in action.

* * *

The next morning, Yuzuru felt strange. "_Ughh… what the hell..._" Yuzuru thought as she sat up in her bed, staring at the sleeping boy in his cot. In her heart, she felt a longing, like she wanted something so badly, yet she either couldn't pinpoint what it was for, or she didn't want to. In standard Yuzuru-fashion, she just ignored her emotions and laid back down.

* * *

Ren was the next one to awaken. He turned over, looking at Yuzuru as she slept in her bed a few feet away. He stared at her hair for a bit, wondering what it would feel like if he returned the favor she gave to him. He shook his head, dismissing the creepy thought. He then sat up and looked around for a bit, admiring all of the cool things that Yuzuru kept in her room. It was small, but it was filled to the brim with books and photographs, many of which she had described in conversation.

Ren sighed. "_If life is treating me so well, why do I want more?_" he thought sadly. He, like Yuzuru, felt a longing, and also just like Yuzuru, he subconsciously denied it and tried to repress it. Neither were exactly sure what they were missing, but they knew something was.

Ren laid back down. He was not feeling up to any sort of task he would have today. When the time came for Yuzuru to go to school, Ren was surprised that she didn't get up and go. "_Oh, silly me… she must be on break…_" he thought, remembering how close Christmas and New Year's Day were. "_Oh no… now I can't get her a present…_" As he realized this, he subconsciously began to run his hands through his hair, trying to go back to sleep and push the sadness away.

* * *

When Yuzuru woke up again, she looked over at Ren and saw, due to natural light, that his hand was in his hair. She also saw that his eyes were shut tightly, and they seemed to leak slightly, like he had just been crying. "_What've I done?…_" Yuzuru thought sadly, feeling like she was the source of Ren's misery, not knowing that it was just because he couldn't afford a present any longer.

When the natural light became too bright and Yuzuru couldn't stand the taste in her mouth any longer, she stood up and went to the bathroom. She was more awake at this point, but she still sort of wished that she could crawl back in her bed. "_I have to take care of Ren today, so I'll probably be in my room anyways…_" she thought while brushing her teeth. She walked back into her room and flopped back onto her bed. Her eyelids weren't heavy enough for her to easily fall asleep again, since she's been up and moving, so instead, she sat up and looked through her phone.

* * *

Ren woke up from the natural light, yawned, and wiped his eyes off. He saw Yuzuru on her phone. "Good morning…" he muttered as he put a shirt, that appeared to be left out for him, on. Yuzuru wished him a "good morning" back, and Ren tried to stand up. However, his knees buckled, and he fell forwards onto the cot.

"Ren!" Yuzuru cried out as she bolted to help him stand up. "Here, I've got you." she said, soothingly and reassuringly, as she helped him walk to the bathroom.

Ren used his toothbrush, which Shoya seemed to have brought over last night with his phone and clothes. "_Huh, he must have only dropped them off…_" Ren thought, wondering why Shoya didn't come in and see him. He shrugged it off as he slowly walked out of the bathroom. Yuzuru was waiting for him just outside.

She helped him get to the dining room table, where, just one room over, she and Shoko prepared breakfast. They brought it out to him, and they all sat and ate. Ren felt physically taxed, everything he did vaguely hurt, even eating. Nonetheless, he thanked Yuzuru and Shoko for the meal, eating it just as quick as he usually does, that is to say, not very quickly.

* * *

After a little while, Shoya came over to check on Ren and visit in general. Ren started to feel bad for worrying everyone so much. His old feeling of being a burden started to creep up on him again. Throughout the course of the day, he shied away from conversation and spent time on his phone, something that was a constant reminder of the work that he had done to earn it, as opposed to mooching off of someone else.

Yuzuru was conscious of this change. She didn't say anything until they split into two groups, Shoko and Shoya, and Yuzuru and Ren. Since there was privacy, Yuzuru spoke up, and immediately attacked the problem at its root. "Why are you acting like you hate it here, Ren?" she asked, moderately upset.

"Ahh… was it that obvious?" he asked. "Well I don't hate it here, I just feel terrible since I can't work; I'm just sort of a bur-" he said, but he was cut off.

"Don't call yourself a burden." she cut in. "I was the one who burdened you with my camera, so it's my fault that you're hurt. It's not a burden, it's a duty. I want to take care of you; I _have_ to take care of you."

"But a duty is still a torch to burn, yeah? You could free your hands otherwise…" Ren said, somewhat philosophically.

"Wh-what the hell are you on about? Look, we've already had this conversation before, just let me take care of you! Pay me back later, I don't care! Just quit being so gloomy!"

"W-well there is another reason… I feel really bad that I can't get you a Christmas present, even though it's so soon…"

She laughed. "Oh, well I don't mind! I wasn't going to let you spend your money on me anyways…" she said, rubbing her neck. "I'd rather you use it all for yourself! Besides, why would you want a gift for me? The Ishidas have done so much more for you!"

* * *

Ren sighed and laid down on his back. "Well, Yuzuru… the truth is…" he began, as he felt his heartbeat hasten. "I…"

Yuzuru's attention was drawn completely towards him now. She was staring intently, maintaining eye contact, which he desperately tried to break away from. "...You what?" she asked after waiting for a moment for him to finish his statement.

"Well… I… just really want to buy you a present, that's all…" he said with a smile. "Besides, it's not like I was gonna exclude the Ishidas!" For some reason, when he said this, he felt bad. "_I'm telling her the truth, so why do I feel so guilty?..._" Ren thought as he scratched his head. Indeed, he was telling the truth, but subconsciously, it was not what he wanted to say.

* * *

Yuzuru felt incredibly disappointed with his response, but she made an effort not so show it, since she wasn't even sure why she was disappointed in the first place. "Oh, well that makes some sense I guess! I guess that's the same reason that _I _wanted to get _you_ a present!" she said, before covering her own mouth. "_Shit! Now he knows __**I **__got __**him**__ one!_" she thought, wishing she could take back what she said.

"Ah… ignore what I said, okay?" Yuzuru said, too nervous to look and see what type of look Ren was giving her.

This was a bit of insult to injury to Ren. "_So I can't get her a gift, but she's gotten me one… Damn, that's not fair!_" Ren thought, frustrated. He didn't voice his frustration though, he just laid down and calmed down. "Well, thank you Yuzuru!" he said after calming down and looking at the bright side. "I'm sorry it's not a surprise, but at least I don't know what you got me!"

Yuzuru sighed. "_He's so sweet…_" she thought, smiling because of his positive outlook on this. The two spent a little while laying down, chatting. Eventually, they both got hungry and bored, so Yuzuru went to go get some food and a movie to put on. They sat up and watched the movie, which Yuzuru displayed against the wall from a phone projector. Upon hearing the commotion from a movie he had seen before, Shoya walked into the room with Shoko, whom he was holding hands with, and sat down to watch the movie with them all. Ren put his sign language to the test after the movie, seeing how well Shoko understood what he said. Surprisingly for him, he had done a good job.

* * *

After the movie, they all chatted a bit out loud and with sign language. The other three were moving far too fast for Ren to keep up with. Ren followed as well as he could, but he ended up just glancing from person to person, just guessing what they were talking about. Eventually he got confused from the lack of movement and noise. Apparently, Shoya had asked him a question, and Ren didn't realize it due to the commotion. "Ren!" Shoya spoke up. "When are you going to high school?"

"O-oh!" he said, surprised at the question. "I'm not sure that I should…"

"We all know that you're smart! You learn really quick!" Shoya said, and Yuzuru nodded. "So, you should totally try it out! Yuzuru did, and she could be your senpai (upperclassman mentor)!"

* * *

"Well…" he started as he thought about it. "I wouldn't have much time to work if I went to school…" After some convincing from the other three, Ren agreed to. "I-if you all help me pick one out, and help me study for entrance exams, I'll start next semester…" he said while signing it as best as he could.

"That's really soon! Are you sure?" Shoya asked. He definitely didn't want to stress out Ren with such a burden right now, since he was injured. Ren would have trouble walking around, so it didn't seem likely that they would be able to visit any high schools immediately. "Maybe you're better off just waiting until next school year!"

Ren shook his head. "No, if you guys believe in me, I want to make you proud as soon as I can!"

* * *

After they spent a bit chatting, Shoya and Yuzuru vowed to help him study for subjects that would likely be on any sort of entrance exam that he would take for any high school. He started immediately, researching basic math principles and grammar rules, but he already knew these. Yuzuru noticed that everything seemed too easy for him. "What type of school did you go to, back when you went?" she inquired.

"It was prestigious, but I can't remember the name- or maybe I choose not to remember. I just remember not having any friends and wishing that I could just be home. I mean, everything was easy, way too easy for me to waste a bunch of time outside of home… Not that I had one after the fire, of course." he added, more cheerfully than Yuzuru expected.

"R-right…" she said nervously. "So you don't get sad talking about that? Wait, a fire made you homeless?"

Ren shook his head. "It was sad, yeah… but the home I had wasn't welcoming. So I try not to treat it any differently than any other event in my life. And yeah, a fire..." Ren went on to go into detail about his history. He told of how all of his legal guardians, for all of his life, had been cruel to him. They treated him like he was a problem, some sort of burden they wish they never had. He was constantly reminded of, "how grateful he should be." This made him resent his own presence in the world, so when an oil fire broke out, incinerating everything, he made no effort to stop it. It was his big break; he could live his life on his own accord. "When I met you all, and you saved me, I realized just how wrong I had been…" he explained. "I couldn't just live without a care in the world; I couldn't just isolate myself and thrive. Even though that meant that I would be a burden on others…"

* * *

Everyone was quiet, especially Shoko, since she again didn't realize what was going on. Shoya and Yuzuru tried to comfort Ren, and Shoko followed suit. "N-no, really! It's okay now!" he said as he shielded himself from their consolation. "Believe me, I'm fine!" he said, to no avail, as everyone crowded around him, overwhelming him with their words and hugs. That night, he could have been suffocated by both the former and the latter, but he wouldn't mind it. Even if his memories pained him, he was surrounded by people who cared enough to ensure that he ends up okay. Burden or not, he was finally at the point where he felt okay without being isolated.


	6. Curtains

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

Author's Note 4/20/20: I have been receiving a lot of requests to make Ren appear in Days and Years, which I couldn't agree more on. In order to do this, I am retconning a few things. I will try to change the story as little as possible. Feel free to reread for context! Thank you for all of the support, everyone :)

* * *

**Fujisawa Ren: Class 1-4**

Ren looked up at the wall, where his assigned class, as well as every other students' classes, were posted. He looked at all of the other names in his class, but he obviously didn't recognize any of them. He shuddered and walked back to the car where Ms. Ishida looked expectantly. "I got in, I'll be starting after winter break!"

"That's amazing, dear! Let's go celebrate!" Ms. Ishida said excitedly while clapping her hands together.

* * *

The day after bringing up attending school, Ren set out with Ms. Ishida to find a decent one so that he could test and start as soon as winter break ended. He was able to test that day, and the day after, he went to check his test results. He was happy to find that he at least got in, since his actual grade wasn't posted. He carefully stepped into Ms. Ishida's car, taking the aforementioned extra care due to the injuries he sustained only a few days prior.

* * *

Ms. Ishida took a different route than she usually would to get back to the parlor. "Oh, where are we going, ma'am?" Ren asked curiously. Ren had gotten quite accustomed to having Ms. Ishida pretty much taking care of him, and Ms. Ishida followed suit. As a result, it was pretty much like having a mother for Ren, and Ms. Ishida was happy to call Ren her son. Even when Ren was signing up for his high school, Ms. Ishida claimed Ren as a guardian would. Because of this, close bond, Ms. Ishida didn't mind doing a little bit of spending on Ren, especially since a lot of the money that she used came from him in origin (since he paid her "rent,").

The route they were going was beginning to look less and less familiar. "Oh, we're going to a mall! Time to do some last minute shopping, you know?" she said with a warm smile. "You've been so much help, and I feel so bad about you losing your money… and you're like a son to me," she sad the last part with some caution, worried about how Ren would take it, "so I wanted to take you somewhere to pick out some Christmas gifts for everyone!"

Ren's eyes widened. "S-son? R-really?" he asked with somewhat moist eyes. He was incredibly touched to be told such a thing. Even if it was sort of obvious that Ms. Ishida saw him as her son, it was something entirely more touching since it was said out loud. His eyes widened again and dried. "Ch-Christmas!" Ren said, surprised. "I completely forgot, what day is it?!"

Ms. Ishida laughed. "Calm down, Ren. It's tomorrow." Ren settled down, but he was still astonished that time eluded him so much. Seeing his expression in the rearview mirror, Ms. Ishida spoke up, saying, "Hey, it's okay. It's been a rough few days, I almost lost track of time myself!"

* * *

When they got to the mall, Ren looked around in awe. It was unlike anything he had ever seen in person. He went from store to store with Ms. Ishida, looking for neat things to get for everyone. While Ms. Ishida was looking at some clothes for Shoya, Ren spotted a small stand with some plush toys. He looked them over, not sure whether he would find anything. While nothing was in this stand in particular, he thought he knew what to look for when he checked in other stores.

"Hey, what did you get for Shoya?" Ren asked cheerfully. "I'm wondering what to pick out for him, myself…"

Ms. Ishida showed him the shirts and sweater that she picked out for him. Ren, being a young teenager, was dubious about the appeal to some clothes as a Christmas present, but he smiled nonetheless. "I-I see! Oh! I have an idea, does Shoya have any consoles?" After hearing which one he did, Ren kept an eye out for a video game store. Upon finding one, Ren picked out a fun-looking game that he thought Shoya would enjoy.

When it came to Shoko and Ms. Nishimiya, Ren felt just as obligated to get a present, but entirely unsure of what to get them. Ms. Ishida piped up and said, "How about some treats? I know they're always making sweets themselves, so I bet they don't get to try a lot of the brand-stuff!" They spent a few minutes picking out sweets. "_Yuzuru is probably gonna eat a lot of these…_" Ren thought as he looked for something extra to get the two ladies. They ended up getting a beautiful bow that complemented Shoko's hair and some alcohol and gift cards for Ms. Nishimiya (this was exclusively Ms. Ishida's choice).

* * *

Now, for Yuzuru, Ren still really wanted to get her a lens for her camera, but he would feel awful even asking Ms. Ishida to spend so much. So, he settled on a different accessory- a rain jacket for the camera. "_Maybe she'll be too stubborn to use it, but I don't want her camera to break…_" Ren considered. When he and Ms. Ishida began to make their way back to the front of the mall, Ren's eye caught something. "_It's perfect!_" he thought, and his voice soon followed. It was a giant, plush, black cat. "Look at this, ma'am!" Ren exclaimed. "Yuzuru would really like this! And the black color also matches her hair!" he said as he pointed it out to Ms. Ishida. She just giggled and gave him a knowing look, which Ren returned with a confused head-tilt.

The two loaded the car up with presents and made their way back to the Salon, where they spent the next half-hour wrapping presents and cleaning up. Ren was still hurting, but everything they were dealing with was pretty light. Because of this, he managed to accomplish this without a hitch. The two stared at their accomplishment; there were a total of twelve presents, each labelled for who they were addressed to, respectively. Ren noticed that two of them had his name on it. "Wha- how?" he said, astonished as he looked up at Ms. Ishida, who just grinned.

* * *

The two loaded the now-wrapped presents into the car, where they were driven to the Nishimiya residence. Ren would be staying a few more nights over there, since he wasn't good enough to work and Yuzuru was free to help him, so the two families would be having a joint Christmas Eve and Christmas there. Ms. Ishida and Ren took several presents to the door, where, upon seeing what was happening, Yuzuru, Shoko, and Shoya (who was spending time with Shoko) followed suit and helped carry the gifts. Ren began to follow the group to get the rest of the presents, but Yuzuru stopped him. "Ren, you're shaking." she said sternly. Ren's eyes widened, since he really hadn't noticed that anything was off. He felt his knees almost buckling, and he saw his hands shaking. "Go in and lay down right now, we'll be right back." she said with a finger pointing to the door.

"R-right… sorry to worry you!" he said sadly at first, then cheerfully, before turning around and beginning to walk inside. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and upon turning around, he saw Shoko and Shoya looking at him, concerned. "I-I'm okay!" he said, signing at the same time (since he began to understand very basic sign language).

Shoya spoke up. "Ren, we're really grateful that you want to help, but…" Shoya rubbed his neck for a second. "Just rest for now, okay? Yuzuru will take care of you, and everyone else will help out." Shoya didn't want to say it, but he was thinking of how Ren seemed to be incredibly fortunate not to have any broken bones from his encounter a few days ago. "_He's so frail…_" Shoya thought, thinking of how Ren was somehow a little shorter and lighter than Yuzuru. "_He could've been killed._" Shoya thought, now turning away to hide his regret for not being there to protect the boy he saw as a little brother.

Shoko, noticing Shoya's expression, grabbed his hand tightly. "Donn worry. Weah all 'ere to protegg 'uh. (Don't worry, we're all here to protect you.)" she said to Ren, trying to give him reassurance that everyone was just looking out for him.

* * *

Ren sighed, turned back to the door and went inside. He sighed, wishing he could help, but he really was too sore to go back and carry _even more _things. He sat down, poking at the floor, waiting for the Ishidas and Nishimiyas to get back, when he had an idea.

Yuzuru was the first one back up, since she was carrying the least (other than Ren, who was carrying nothing, of course). When she opened the door, she could not immediately locate Ren, so she just sat the bags down under the Christmas tree. "Ren! We're back!" Yuzuru said. She fiddled with her camera while walking down the hallway, and almost stepped on him, making her jump back from surprise. "What are you doing, dude?" she asked, but it was obvious. He was doing push-ups.

After Ms. Nishimiya came home, and after being scolded by Yuzuru for exercising when he was injured, Ren sat down at the table to eat some dinner with everyone else. "_Dang, and I was so close to hitting 15, too…_" he thought as absentmindedly said "Itadakimasu! (Thank you for this meal!)" and chowing down. Before he knew it, he was asking for a second helping, something that Yuzuru took notice of.

* * *

After dinner, Yuzuru cornered him. "Why were you doing push-ups earlier?" she asked. "You were shaking earlier, and you ate a lot more than usual."

"Oh! I j-just wanted to get a bit stronger so maybe things like this won't happen again…" he said, averting eye contact and pointing to his bruise. "Maybe I could defend myself; and if I can't, maybe I can have the strength to carry things after I lose…"

This was hard to hear for Yuzuru. She sighed and put a hand on Ren's shoulder, trying to get him to look at her. Once she got his attention, she spoke up. "Look, Ren… you'll have me protecting you, okay?" she said with a caring expression. "And Shoya and Shoko, too! So if you're going to get stronger… can it wait until you aren't hurt anymore?" she asked sincerely.

Ren looked nervous. "Y-you really aren't mad at me?" he asked, and Yuzuru responded by shaking her head "_No._" Ren smiled shyly and nodded. "Th-then I'll wait… I'll take it easy and heal as quick as possible!" he exclaimed.

* * *

Everyone sat in the living room, watching a classic American Christmas movie and drinking hot chocolate. Ren looked around the room, seeing everyone bundled up and cozy. He spotted Shoya and Shoko; Shoya had his arm around Shoko and she had her head on his shoulder. Ren looked away, not wanting to invade their privacy. For reasons that he didn't quite understand, Ren was jealous of those two. He knew that he didn't really want to take the place of either one of the two (Ren didn't see Shoya that way, and although he found Shoko beautiful, he didn't feel _that_ way about her), so why be jealous? He thought about it, and he guessed it just felt nice to have somebody so close to you, both physically and emotionally. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He sipped the hot chocolate and brought his legs and blanket in close, so that he'd at least have himself to snuggle with.

After the Ishidas left, Ms. Nishimiya went straight to bed and Shoko went to lay down and read for a while. Ren was still on the sofa, wrapped up in a ton of blankets, without any hot chocolate left. "_I didn't realize working out drains you so much…_" he thought as he failed time and again to muster the energy to move out of his blanket-shell. Yuzuru was still lazing around, watching TV, fiddling with her camera, and reading comics. Ren's head nodded up and down, as he was trying to fight the urge to keep his eyes shut and just pass out. Yuzuru's voice jolted him awake. "Alright, dude, I'm taking you to the room so you can sleep."

* * *

Yuzuru couldn't see it, but a curtain obscured her thoughts, as though they were vision.

* * *

Ren, who was delirious, retorted with a, "I'd like to see you try…" and a little bit of maniacal laughter. He was astonished when Yuzuru stood up and tried, and succeeded, picking Ren up and carrying him down the hallway. He blushed and held onto her through the blankets, to support his own weight. "Y-you're s-so strong…" he said in awe as she set him down on the cot. "I want to get strong like you…" Ren slapped his own forehead, realizing that what he said was incredibly embarrassing. "D-do you do push-ups, too?" he asked, trying to save face.

Yuzuru put him down on the cot. "Nah, but I'm always carrying things, and I used to wrestle a lot with Shoko, trying to help her learn how to defend herself." This made Ren tilt his head, as if to beg the question, "_Why did Shoko need to defend herself?_" As a result, Yuzuru just laughed and waved her hands in front of her. "D-don't worry about it, man! This was a long time ago, I guess I just stayed strong from then!" she said, now being the one who was saving face.

Ren looked at her in awe. "Teach me how to defend myself!" he said with a glint in his eyes.

Yuzuru shook her head. "Didn't I say that you aren't allowed to work out until you're all healed? Besides, it would just be me beating you up until you figured it out, you'd only get more hurt." she said frankly. "I think you're better off just doing the push-ups." somehow she knew that this wasn't going to convince Ren. That would most likely be due to the fact that his expression showed evidence of even more awe than before. "_How can I say 'No' to that face…_" she thought as Ren was unintentionally giving puppy-dog eyes.

* * *

The curtain, which had been so tightly shut that it seemed as though it was chained, slowly began to drift open.

* * *

"A-alright, I'll teach you the basics! But I don't know very much, I mostly learned what I know from movies and anime…"

"That's so cool! _You're _so cool!" Ren said with such innocence, kindness, and genuine excitement that it made Yuzuru's face burn. "Thank you so much Yuzu!" Yuzuru turned off the lights and the two laid down on their respective beddings. "Can we learn tomorrow?" Ren asked, not wanting to go to sleep without confirmation.

Yuzuru snickered. "Only if you're all healed, dude." Seemingly convinced, Ren nodded and rested his eyes. Yuzuru, on the other hand, stared at the ceiling. "_Craaap…_" she thought as she rested her arm over her eyes. "_Why was that so freaking easy for him?..._" Yuzuru tried to shake off the embarrassment, but deep down, she knew that she had been chomping at the bit to have some sort of interaction with Ren. In all fairness, Ren was a good friend, and Yuzuru wouldn't mind sharing her knowledge, albeit somewhat limited, with a good friend. However, since Ren risked his life to save something precious to Yuzuru, she began to realize that she was spending time with Ren more than out of common friendliness. She seemed to always feel a strong urge to protect Ren, to be there for him, to take care of him, to lift him up when he's down.

"_I bet that's how Shoya felt when Shoko was feeling down…_" she contemplated as she looked at the ceiling. "_Shoya… Shoko…_" Suddenly, a thought popped into her head. Shoko and Shoya were sitting on the sofa, watching Christmas movies, drinking hot cocoa, holding hands, and snuggling. Yuzuru's heart rate and breathing quickened their tempo's, respectively. "_Shoya… Shoko…_" she thought as her face began to burn. For a second, she imagined it. She and Ren had taken the places of the two lovebirds. She pushed it out of her mind, thinking about the tall, black-haired loner and the short-ish, rosy-haired, mostly-deaf beautician-in-training.

* * *

The curtain was yanked violently open, so much so that it seemed it could never be shut again. There, Yuzuru saw it. Sitting on the sofa, watching Christmas movies, drinking hot cocoa, _holding hands_, _snuggling_, in place of Shoya and Shoko were…

Yuzuru violently popped the thought bubble, with force to spare. She gasped and covered her mouth shut, hoping not to wake Ren up. Finally, after so long of her feelings being present yet invisible, they could be seen. _Yuzuru Nishimiya finally realized that she had a crush on Ren Fujisawa._

* * *

Ren, of course, was awakened by Yuzuru, when she slapped her hand over her mouth to cover the gasp. "You okay?" he asked quietly, but Yuzuru pretended to be asleep. Ren looked at her, but it was too dark to tell what exactly had made the noise. He shrugged and turned back around. "Well, if you're asleep, I hope it doesn't wake you, but… I really hope I can spend Christmas with you…" He couldn't see it, but Yuzuru had buried her face into her pillow.

* * *

Unlike Yuzuru's curtain, which only seemed to be chained together, Ren's curtain was practically a solid slab of metal, one that he had little chance of seeing through.

* * *

The next morning, Ren snuck out extra early, since he had gotten better rest than Yuzuru, and she was sleeping in. He banked on the prospect that Ms. Nishimiya was awake before anyone else, which turned out to be absolutely correct. "Ren, it's early." she said and took a sip of coffee. "You should go back and rest, we won't be opening presents until the Ishidas get here, and you know that Shoya probably won't wake up until noon…"

"U-umm! I actually wanted to do something, as a Christmas present to you, for being so kind and hospitable!" he said quietly, yet excitedly. "I want to make breakfast for you, so that you don't have to worry about it this morning!" Ms. Nishimiya sipped her coffee and smiled. "_How thoughtful…_" she thought as Ren began to work. On his new cell phone, he had researched how to make simple, tasty breakfasts with the basic ingredients that he was sure the Nishimiyas had. He was also no stranger to a stovetop, as Ms. Ishida had taught the basics.

A few minutes later, he brought a plate over to Ms. Nishimiya, with bacon and eggs on it. "I-I hope you enjoy!" he said with a bow as he went to return to the bedroom.

"Ren, wait." Ms. Nishimiya said. It wasn't loud or stern, but something about the Nishimiyas made Ren feel compelled to listen to them. He turned around and stepped forward. "Just so you know… I happen to know that Yuzuru_ loves_ bacon and eggs for breakfast." she said, a little slyly. Ren was slightly confused, but the message went through. He nodded and bowed, immediately getting to work once more.

* * *

Chips and rust began to form all over the metallic curtain that shrouded Ren from the truth.

* * *

When Ren finished, he dished the bacon and eggs (with cheese, since Ms. Nishimiya informed Ren that Yuzuru enjoyed cheese on her eggs) onto a plate, using a spatula, and placed it on Yuzuru's nightstand. While he didn't want to wake her up, he certainly wanted this to be what she woke up to. He bowed to the sleeping Yuzuru and went back to sleep. It had been far too early for him to be awake, since he was up so late last night, so he had begun to act delirious again. So, he forgot that he hadn't yet brought the spatula back to the kitchen, and he fell back asleep with it in his hands, something that neither he nor Ms. Nishimiya noticed.

Yuzuru soon woke up to the smell of one of her favorite breakfasts. She sat up in her bed and stared at it. "_I guess mom just wanted to be extra nice, since it's Christmas and all…_" she thought as she began to dig in. She noticed that it didn't taste exactly how her mother usually prepared it, but she ate it and enjoyed it nonetheless. Suddenly, she noticed that Ren had somehow not awoken from the scent of delicious food. She looked over at him, planning to wake him up and inform him that breakfast seemed to be ready, but she stopped. She noticed the spatula in his hands. It all clicked for her, that Ren woke up extra early to make her breakfast. She covered her head in her blankets from embarrassment.

* * *

A few hours later, Shoko came in to wake them up. "_That's right… days on the weekend pretty much start whenever Shoko wakes up…_" Ren thought as he rubbed his eyes. He suddenly felt another pair of eyes. He turned, since Yuzuru's gaze had practically been stabbing him. "Wh-what's wrong, Yuzuru?" he asked. "I see you ate it already! Was it good?"

Yuzuru, who had been blushing, took a second and cooled off. With a yawn, she said. "Yeah... It was delicious..."

The two went to get ready for the Ishidas to show up. While Yuzuru was using the bathroom, Ren went to put the spatula back where it belongs, apologizing to Ms. Nishimiya for misplacing it. When the Ishidas arrived, everyone sat in the living room, chatting, signing, laughing, and enjoying the others' company. Ren was smiling and genuinely enjoying himself when Shoya reached an arm over to him, placing it on his shoulder. Yuzuru looked over and gasped, only adding to Ren's confusion. "...Ren?" Shoya asked slowly. That's when Ren realized that there were tears flowing down from his eyes. Ren didn't feel bad though, and he seemed to show it through continued smiles, jokes, and laughs. Shoya's expression softened when everyone, including Ren, simultaneously realized why he was crying. Ren was spending his first Christmas with his _real _family-_ they were tears of joy_.

* * *

Finally, the presents began to be opened. Everyone seemed surprised when they figured out who each present was addressed to, and the Nishimiyas and Ren were extra surprised when Shoya and his mother pulled out some extra presents, that hadn't been resting under the Christmas tree.

First, everyone opened their presents from the Ishidas. Ms. Nishimiya received the alcohol and gift cards that Ms. Ishida picked out for her. Ren got some cushions for his sore joints and a video console that Shoya no longer used, with the video games alongside it (the latter two was addressed to Yuzuru as well, since they were around the same age and would probably want to play the video games together). While Ren's smile beamed at Yuzuru, since they would get to play the cool, hand-me-down video games together, Yuzuru averted eye contact. Of course, Shoya got Shoko something truly thoughtful; he got her a scrapbook of memories they had made together, with some dating back all the way to elementary school, made from yearbooks. On top of this, of course, a few little things like chocolate and the bow that Ren and Ms. Ishida had picked out for her. After wiping away tears of joy and the two hugging, the present-opening commenced.

Now it was time for the Ishidas and Ren to open what the Nishimiyas got for them. Each present seemed to be collective; as in, they were large presents that the Nishimiyas each picked something to put in, for each person. Maria, Shoya's niece, opened her present first, which was filled with toys for her and gift cards for her parents. Shoya then opened his present. Shoko got him a really beautiful photo of the both of them holding hands, which had been snapped by Yuzuru, scaled up and framed. On top of that, she got him (and herself) coupons for restaurants they liked to visit and the theater they frequented. Yuzuru just got him some more photos, since her main present to him was supplying most of the photos for the scrapbook. Ms. Nishimiya left a note (which Shoya did not read aloud) and some cash in the box. Ms. Ishida, in her box, got some sake (from Ms. Nishimiya) and a lot of neat, little things from the other two.

* * *

It was now time for Ren to open his present, and he was delighted to feel that it was heavy- really heavy. Ren opened it and looked inside; Ms. Nishimiya put a lot of school supplies in as well as a bunch of comic books. Shoko left him a bunch of healthy snacks (since she was worried about how small he was). Yuzuru, of course, left the best gift within. "When I saw you doing push-ups last night, I snagged these and put them in before the gift was wrapped." she explained. There were two 5kg dumbbells lying in the box. Pedro, Shoya's brother-in-law, gave a thumbs up, making it obvious where Yuzuru got the dumbbells from. Ren was incredibly happy that he got them, but they somehow didn't seem like the extent of the gifts. Yuzuru snickered confidently. "You've got more! Those were just the opening act, not even the main event!"

Ren looked back into the box, where a small, handheld console was laying there. Ren's mind was blown. "_TWO consoles?_" he thought as he picked it up. "That's not all, open it up!" Yuzuru said with a smile. As he did, a photograph of a few ragged-looking men, and a small slip of paper fell out from between the two screens. Ren picked the photo up and stared intently. He gasped, and his eyebrows raised; it was a mugshot of the men who mugged him. "They were identified by street cameras! Now look at the paper!" Yuzuru instructed. Ren picked it up and read it over, but, being a young, slightly-uneducated teenager, he couldn't make sense of it. "It's a check, Ren. You've got all your money back!"

* * *

Now, finally, Ren's most anticipated moment; Yuzuru would get to open her present. He knew it wasn't a lot, but he had put thought into it, and he really wanted to see how she would react. Unbeknownst to him, she would pretty much be happy with any gift he got her. It was a smash hit; she loved it.

After the presents were opened, everyone helped throw the excess wrapping paper away and move the presents to their respective rooms (except the Ishidas). Yuzuru helped Ren carry his dumbbells- or carry them for him, since she didn't want him to get hurt. Ren admired the neat pile of things that he got that morning, looking it over, excited to try each and every one that he got. "Yuzuru! Wanna play video games?" he asked, eager to try out either the console that Shoya passed to them, or the console that Yuzuru bought him. "All these games look so fun!"

Yuzuru's eyes narrowed and her smile twisted into a sinister one. She glanced at one of the games Shoya gave to them: Super Smash Bros. Melee. "_The poor boy won't know what hit him…_" The two set up the console, but they weren't able to play yet since they had to wish Maria and her family goodbye. Ren hugged them and saw them off. "_I'll see them in a few hours, it'll be fine…_" he thought as they left. The kids (and young adults) all gathered to play some card games while Ms. Nishimiya and Ms. Ishida got drunk while chatting. "Hey, Shoya, take them somewhere while the adults are talking, please?" Ms. Ishida asked of her son, since she didn't want to make things uncomfortable for Yuzuru and Ren (the only actual children present).

* * *

Shoya shrugged and put on a coat. "Come on, guys. We're going to all go see a movie!" he said while signing to Shoko. Yuzuru looked at Ren, then back at Shoya, who was holding hands with Shoko.

"_This will be so awkward…_"


	7. Two Versus Two

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

Author's Note 4/21/20: Please look at Author's Note 4/20/20 (In all the previous chapters). It provides a decent explanation that I don't feel the need or want to repeat. Enjoy!

* * *

Ren, Yuzuru, Shoko, and Shoya all made their long trek to the movie theater. Much to the embarrassment of Yuzuru, they were walking in pairs- Shoko and Shoya walked up front while her and Ren walked a few feet behind. A few days ago, this wouldn't have been a huge deal, but upon realizing her feelings for Ren were more than that of just friends, she wished they all would've just been walking side by side, or maybe split between boys and girls. "_No… that wouldn't really be fair to Shoko and Shoya, especially after I worked so hard to get them together…_" she thought while shaking her head. "_Whatever. I'll just have to put up with this for the next few hours…_"

Seeing Yuzuru stare intently at the ground worried Ren a little. He felt a bit awkward about the situation as well, but he was far more oblivious to his own feelings than Yuzuru had been of hers. But he was at least able to tell that she would probably lash out, or something, if he asked what was wrong.

For the rest of the walk, the two up front chatted heartily while the two in the back simply faced forward, except for one time. That one time was when Ren would get a pain in his legs and would have to rest. The first time it happened, it took everyone by surprise, but after that, Shoko and Shoya would glance back at them every now and again to make sure that they weren't leaving Ren and Yuzuru behind.

* * *

After they got to the movie theater, they were thrown into a situation so palpably awkward that they would rather just leave and go back home, where the adults were sure to be drunk and talking nonsense. "What do you mean? It's not cheesy, it's a perfectly normal movie to see! Stop being so childish!" Shoya said in reply to Ren and Yuzuru, who strongly protested against the movie Shoya had suggested. Shoya and Shoko wanted to see a romance movie that they had planned on seeing for a while; now that they were at the theater, it was the perfect time to watch it. However, Ren and Yuzuru were not so keen on the idea.

"No, it's lame! And I don't have to stop; I am a child!" Yuzuru said angrily. "There are so many other options, but this is the one you wanna see?"

"Yeah, I mean, we could all see an action movie, or even a Christmas movie, but this?" Ren added alongside Yuzuru.

Shoya was beginning to get frustrated with the two, but Shoko could read the mood perfectly. With a grin that was more sinister than Yuzuru or Ren- or even Shoya- had ever seen, Shoko said, "'Ow aboudd we spwit into two groups? Shoya an' I 'ill see our movie, an' you two see somefing else? (How about we split into two groups? Shoya and I will see our movie, and you two see something else?)"

The nature of the question made Shoya forget about the look Shoko had on. He looked at her and nodded. "That's a good idea. Hey, will you two stop complaining so much if I just give you money to buy tickets to see whatever?" he asked, oblivious to what that sounded like.

Ren and Yuzuru stared at the young adults. "_Damnit, Shoko! I'll get you for that one!_" Yuzuru thought as her mouth curled into a frown, but no words left it. Ren and Yuzuru seemed to have a silent agreement that this is the worst scenario. Suddenly, seeing the romance movie seemed a whole lot better of an idea. "H-hey, let's all just calm down, yeah?" Ren said, struggling to become calm, himself. "I-I don't think it's a good idea to split up, actually. Let's all see the movie together." He said that with a forced smile.

Yuzuru was hesitant at first, but she nodded and conceded that this was the best outcome. "_Besides, we don't have to sit next to one another…_" they both seemed to think as they walked into the auditorium.

* * *

The place was mostly empty; it seemed like everyone was probably still hanging out with their families at home. So, when, after Shoko and Shoya sat directly next to each other, the two tried to sit on either side of them, Shoya considered shooing them away. "There are a hundred seats open, and you want to sit right next to us?" he asked, more confused than annoyed. Shoko frowned a little at Yuzuru, but Yuzuru made a scowl that was worth ten of Shoko's frowns. "_It's obvious what she's trying to do…_" Yuzuru thought as she moved a few seats out from Shoko, something that Ren did from Shoya a few seconds after. The seating arrangement was as follows: Ren, empty seat, empty seat, Shoya, Shoko, empty seat, empty seat, Yuzuru.

Ren and Yuzuru, being kids, couldn't care less about a cheesy romance movie; so, the actual contents of the movie were kind of a blur to them. What they did notice, however, were the little interactions between Shoya and Shoko. During a suspenseful scene, they noticeably squeezed the other's hand tighter with their own. During a happy scene, they would steal glances at each other, as if to say "_You make me this happy!_" or something of the sort. During a sad scene, Shoya would reach his hand over Shoko's shoulder and pull her close, to comfort her in case she began to cry. "_They've got this down to a science…_" Ren thought as he observed them.

* * *

After the movie, Shoko, who did not want to give up on embarrassing her little sister, suggested that they all go out to eat something, since their mothers were probably too drunk to make anything for them right now. Yuzuru, who was a big fan of eating, from what Ren recalled, didn't seem too happy about this. However, to Ren, this was a lot more harmless than a movie.

He regretted thinking this way immediately after they sat down. It was a four person table, with a wall on one side. Obviously, Shoya and Shoko would be sitting next to each other. So that left Ren and Yuzuru eating together on the other side.

Now, no matter how they may feel about each other secretly, they were definitely good friends outwardly. So when Shoya said, "You guys have been really quiet. Are you feeling okay?" they had to do something.

Ren was the first to bite the bullet and talk. "That movie was terrible, wasn't it, Yuzuru?"

"Yeah! I mean out of all the available options, you guys chose that one?" she said, gesturing at the two lovebirds.

"Eh? Don't be so childish. I thought it was pretty nice, how about you, Shoko?" he said, signing the last part.

"Ah reawwy liked idd. (I really liked it.)" she said cheerfully. "Idd was juss so romantic…(It was just so romantic…)" She said the last part serenely, looking into Shoya's eyes.

"_Uggh… I think I'm gonna be sick…_" Ren thought as he listened to the two talk. "_You know what? I don't care anymore!_" Ren stood up from his aisle seat. "Yuzuru! Let's go walking, I think these two have been hinting they want privacy for a little while…" he said. The last part was said quietly and slyly, and to save face, as if it were an excuse that made perfect sense in the context.

"...Y-yeah! We'll see you two later, text us if you need anything!" she exclaimed, eager to get out of the restaurant. Following Ren, she got out of dodge.

* * *

Shoya nodded and waved them goodbye, but Shoko only sighed, as if she'd been defeated. "What's wrong, Shoko?" Shoya asked while signing. "I know for a fact that Yuzuru can protect Ren, so he won't get beat up again." he said cheerfully. "_Am I dating the cutest, most wonderful, but most clueless man in the world?_" Shoko thought as she watched Yuzuru and Ren get almost too far away to see.

"Though, we should probably catch up with them after we finish eating." Shoya continued. "Ahh! They didn't even wait for their food to get done before leaving!"

* * *

Yuzuru and Ren were both relieved to be out of the restaurant. They both made their way to Suimon park, where they were just young enough not to be looked at strangely for hanging around. Yuzuru breathed a sigh of relief. "Phew… thanks for getting us out of there, man. This isn't exactly how I wanted to spend Christmas morning, but it's better now." she said with a smile. They were both sitting on a swing set, since Ren didn't have the energy to go up onto the playplace.

Ren sighed. "Yeah… I guess adults have weird tastes in movies, huh?" he said with a chuckle. They continued chatting for a little while, swinging on the swingset, enjoying the slightly sharp cold wind that whipped them as they did so.

Eventually, though… "Hey Ren. Your birthday is coming up really soon…" Yuzuru began. She had a little bit of a sad tone in her voice. "But will you be well enough to play lazer tag? I mean… it does involve a lot of running…"

Ren looked at her sad expression. He considered this for a moment and sighed. "I don't really know… To tell the truth, I'm really exhausted just from walking around for the past while. And it doesn't help that you won't let me exercise!" he said the last part jokingly accusingly and stuck his tongue out.

"Wha-Hey! If you can hardly walk around, why would I let you actually exert yourself?!" she replied. When Ren just started laughing in response, she couldn't help but smile. "Fine, just for that, when you're feeling better, I'm gonna put you through hell!"

"I look forward to it!" Ren said, accepting Yuzuru's challenge. "In the meantime, though, um, take it easy on me…" he said the last part a little nervously, since Yuzuru had a scary look on her face. They both laughed it off, and continued chatting for a while.

* * *

A little time passed, and Shoko texted Yuzuru.

_Hey, Shoya and I are done eating. Do you wanna regroup, or do you want more privacy?_

"Damnit…" Yuzuru snarled as she read the message, which had mimicked Ren's excuse for leaving the restaurant. "_Is this punishment for teasing Shoya so much, Shoko?_" Yuzuru thought with a frown. Ren tilted his head, wondering what was wrong. Unlike last time, when he was worried about Yuzuru lashing out, he felt like this was an appropriate time to ask about it.

"Umm, is everything okay?" he asked timidly.

Yuzuru sighed. "Oh, um, I just got a pebble in my shoe." she said as she took a sneaker off and began to shake it. Since she had been leaning over at the time, this was a completely believable lie. After shaking her shoe for a bit, she put it back on. "Ah, but I'm bored here. Wanna go meet back up with Shoko and Shoya, or what?" The way she put it, it was Ren's decision.

Ren rubbed his chin. "Umm… Oh! I know! I wanna try some of the video games we got today!" he said. They discussed it for a bit, and they came to the conclusion that there was no earthly way that the ladies were still drunk or drinking.

* * *

They walked back to the apartment complex, where, soon after they exited the elevator, Shoya and Shoko caught up with them, bringing them their orders that they forgot entirely about. "Oh, thank you!" Ren said really kindly to them both. Instead of eating at the table, where Ren and Yuzuru probably should've eaten, since Ms. Nishimiya was asleep, they ate in Yuzuru's room. In fact, everyone migrated to Yuzuru's room, since they all wanted to spend more time together.

While they were booting the game up, Shoya went to the other room to check on his mom, who was asleep on a chair. After he got back, he sat down and relaxed. "Oh, I know! Let's have a tournament!" he said. Even though the game, Super Smash Bros: Melee, was no longer his, Ren and Yuzuru didn't have the heart not to let him play some. So, Ren and Shoko, both of whom had rarely played video games before, were paired against each other, and Yuzuru and Shoya, who had both played plenty, were paired against one another.

* * *

The first match was Ren vs. Shoko. They both spent a few minutes peacefully, agreeing not to attack each other until they were confident they understood the controls. After they were ready, they went at it. Ren's character of choice, given that none of the others had been unlocked, was Pikachu, since he was familiar with it. Shoko chose Kirby, since he's pink.

After a tense few minutes, filled with little errors that beginners were prone to make, Ren won the match. Yuzuru was cheering for him in the background, and Shoya was politely clapping, although he felt bad for Shoko. Unsure of what to do, Ren stood up and bowed, prompting the other three to laugh.

* * *

The next match was Yuzuru, who picked Sheik, vs. Shoya, who picked Captain Falcon. Immediately, the two began exhibiting a great amount of skill that came from playing video games most of their lives. Yuzuru, although she had never played this game in particular, was familiar with it from videos, and familiar to video games in general. Shoya, the previous owner of this game, used to play it a few times a week.

To Ren and Shoko, their movements seemed to be on a whole other level. They kept staring at the TV screen, mouths agape, then looking at each other, as if to say, "_Are these two professionals or something?_" and then look back to the screen.

"You got this Yuzuru!"

"C'mah, Shoya!"

Cheers like these could be heard on either side of the players. With each kind word and word of encouragement, they seemed to play better, just to impress those who were cheering for them. However, their skill seemed to be nearly the same. They were both sweating a little from having to react so quickly to the other's actions. Shoya consistently blew on his own hands to cool them off. Towards the end, they both had one more life left. But, hearing Ren's cheers for her, Yuzuru pushed extra hard, taking Shoya off guard and causing him to lose. "Yes! Yeah!" Yuzuru said joyously as she jumped up. She shook Shoya's hand and admitted that it was really fun.

* * *

After that, Shoya and Shoko decided to go back to the living room, so that they could see what was on TV. It wasn't quite late out yet, and Shoya's sister, Pedro, and Maria were all going to be coming back later to party. The ladies were napping, to sober up. Ren and Yuzuru had complete privacy; they could finally play the game they had wanted to.

* * *

Yuzuru was in shock. "_What the hell just happened?_" she thought. She last recalled that they were choosing their characters. She was planning on taking it easy on Ren, but...

"That was a good match, Yuzuru!" Ren said cheerfully. He won. It was a close match, but Ren, the completely new player, won.

"How the hell did you do that?!" Yuzuru asked angrily, making Ren recoil a little. "I mean, I'm no professional, but I've got some experience! And you come out here, brand new, and just…"

Ren snickered a little. "Oh, well I learned a lot just from watching you and Shoya." he explained. *Cough* "sore loser" *cough.* He added insult to injury, teasing Yuzuru as she fumed, refusing to accept defeat.

"What'd you say?!" she asked angrily while Ren just backed up some, laughing now. Yuzuru was now playing along. She was still frustrated, but it really was pretty funny, so she couldn't help but enjoy herself even in loss. "I'll teach you to call me a sore loser!" she said as she swept Ren's feet from under him with a kick, him landing on his cot. "Now, admit that Yuzuru is the greatest of all time, or else I'll tickle you." Again, she said this funny thing with a straight face, making Ren want to laugh.

* * *

"Alright, fine. Yuzuru is the greatest of all time." he said after straightening his face, staring up into her eyes.

"_Woah._" Yuzuru thought as she stepped back and sat down on her bed. "_That was… cute…_" She kicked herself for thinking that as her face grew red. "W-well that was easy. Do you always admit defeat so easily?"

"Well, I don't admit defeat easily." Ren explained, prompting Yuzuru to tilt her head in confusion. "But if someone ever asked me to sing your praises, I wouldn't hesitate!" He said this with a warm smile. Yuzuru panicked. Her lights were on, so she couldn't properly hide her goofy smile or red face. Seeing her reaction, Ren scratched his head. "D-did I say anything weird?" he asked, worried about her.

Yuzuru, unsure of what to do, just picked up her pillow and covered her own face with it, whilst sitting up. After she cooled down a bit, she just sighed. "Ren…" she began to say. Hearing the tone of her voice, for reasons that Ren didn't know or at least admit to know, his heart skipped a beat. She looked at him and thought for a second. "_No… Now's not a good time…_" she thought as she thought up another excuse. "You didn't say anything weird, I'm just still mad that I lost. I demand a rematch!" she said, her tone convincing enough to fool Ren.

After a hard-fought victory for Yuzuru, she decided to put the game down for the moment, to maintain her victory, despite Ren's protests. "Hey, no fair! Best two out of three!" Ren demanded, but Yuzuru covered her ears and pretended not to hear him, whistling and feigning ignorance.

* * *

A little time passed, and they were watching some anime when the ladies got up from their naps, sober now. They went to check on everyone, first Shoya and Shoko, who were watching yet another classic American Christmas movie, and then Ren and Yuzuru. "Is everything all right, you two?" Ms. Ishida asked sweetly, prompting both of them to respond with a "Yes." "Ren, are you still feeling sore?"

"Ahh, I'm not too sore while I'm sitting down, but if I move around too much, I'll start to notice it." he replied.

"Do you think you're up for some family time? Maria and her parents will be here soon, and we're all going to have dinner together and play some games." Ms. Nishimiya said. The word "family," struck a chord in Ren's heart. "_That's right, this is my family, these are my people…_" he thought with a smile. He nodded happily in response to her original question.

"And how about you, Yuzuru?" her mother asked. "I know it'll be very crowded over here, but…" she glanced from her to Ren, who seemed excited about spending time with his family. "I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun."

"Yeah. I wouldn't miss this for the world. Do either of you need any help with dinner?" Yuzuru asked, stealing glances at Ren. She sort of wanted to cook for him, especially since he cooked for her just this morning, but she didn't think she would have an excuse to until now. Both the ladies gave her a knowing smile.

"I'm certain you can help us with the cake!" Ms. Ishida said excitedly. "We haven't even started it yet… Oh! Your mother tells me that you and your sister are really good at baking!"

"Shoko's helping us with the main dish, actually. Do you want to be in charge of the cake, Yuzuru?" her mother asked.

Yuzuru smiled and got up. "Yeah, that would be great! Alright! Ren, just relax and let yourself heal until dinner." she said commandingly.

* * *

Ren was worried about what she might do if he disobeyed, so he nodded and saw her off. He laid back on his cot and tapped his fingers on the floor. He eventually got back up and rooted through his presents to find his check, and his handheld console. "_Tomorrow, I've gotta get her something…_" he thought as he peered at the check for 10,000¥. Unfortunately, the lens he wanted to get her was around 17,000¥. He was planning on working to save up for it, but he was no longer in any condition to work, so he had to think of something else. He pondered for a little while, but he kept drawing blanks, so he decided to play his new handheld console for a bit.

* * *

After a while, the other Ishidas came over and Ren left the room to socialize. He turned and saw Yuzuru, who was in the kitchen, wearing an apron. He stifled a gasp and looked away in embarrassment. "_What the…_" he thought, wondering what it was that had come over him. She looked over to him, but she only saw his back side. She just shrugged and continued to work on the cake.

While Ren was trying to brush off whatever that was, just earlier, he sat down at the table and began to socialize with everyone. He would comment on some of the things Shoya said, causing a few laughs. He would humor Maria when she talked to him. He also asked Pedro a lot about the different ways to lift the dumbbells he got this morning, and despite somewhat of a language barrier, Pedro was able to give him some really good advice.

The time came for dinner, after which they would have the cake. Ren could not stop thinking about the cake. For some reason, even though he didn't have too huge of a sweet tooth (though he had one nonetheless), he was far more excited to eat the cake than to eat dinner. He watched as the ladies all brought the food to the table, dishing it out. The dinner was nothing out of the ordinary, though it was well made and delicious. The cake, however, was particular to the holiday, so it was made extra carefully.

* * *

After they finished setting the food on the table, Yuzuru took the closest available seat- which happened to be right across from Ren. "Psst! Hey, Ren!" Yuzuru said, unsubtly, getting his attention. "Are you excited to try the cake? I put a lot of care into it!" She said this with a lot of pride in her work, jabbing a thumb at her chest.

"I can't wait! I bet it's delicious!" Ren said excitedly, looking from the cake to Yuzuru. She smiled really warmly, happy that it was the dish she put work into that he was most excited about.

After the food, it was time to cut and dish out the cake. It was not particularly large or small, so everyone got a decent-sized piece. After everyone had a slice, they all began to dig in. Yuzuru was eating her piece of cake without looking at it. Instead, she was staring intently at Ren, to gauge his reaction to his own piece. Upon the first bite, he looked up at Yuzuru and locked eyes with her as he chewed and swallowed. Though there was plenty of chatter, he managed to quietly say across the table, "This is delicious." Ren, who was an already slow eater, took his time with every bite, as if he didn't want the flavor to escape him. This little detail made Yuzuru really happy, so even though everyone had finished eating and catching up with everybody, and were getting up to leave, Yuzuru remained in her seat.

* * *

After he finished, he cleaned up his plate. "Yuzuru." he said abruptly, snapping her out of a daze. "You're an incredible chef!" he said really excitedly. "I'm going to thank everyone else for the meal, too, but something about the cake…" he trailed off. "Thank you, Yuzuru." he said sweetly.

* * *

Apparently, so much sugar made Ren crash. So, while they were in the room, he was acting delirious, yet he refused to sleep. "I'm just saying… it doesn't make sense that such a big monster fits… in a tiny ball…" he said while watching Yuzuru play one of the video games they got today.

"Dude, it doesn't have to make any sense, it's just a video game! You should go to sleep." Yuzuru said, more commanding than suggesting this. "I even turned the lights off so that you can sleep, you clearly need to."

"What?... no." Ren said plainly as he forced himself to sit up, preventing himself from falling asleep. "I'd rather just keep watching… hehehe…"

"I'm telling you, man. It's past your bedtime." she replied while staring at the screen, trying to get under his skin.

"It's past your bedtime! You're going to regret saying that, kid!" Ren said as he jokingly lashed out and lightly tapped her with an empty water bottle. When she paused the game and turned around, he perhaps thought he would have regretted doing this.

"Well, I didn't want to pull out my secret weapon, but I guess I have no choice…" Yuzuru said mysteriously as she moved closer to Ren, causing Ren to move back.

"Ha! Any violence will just wake me up even more! Then I can play too and beat you again!" Ren said confidently.

Yuzuru just shook her head and clicked her tongue. She inched towards him a little bit more, and in one swift motion, she moved both of her hands onto his head, beginning to massage his scalp. She had remembered that this was like Ren's off switch from a few nights back. Almost immediately after she did this, Ren leaned back and closed his eyes. "It's not fair… I wanted to stay up with you…" he said quietly. Yuzuru tried to ignore what he said, but she couldn't. Thankfully for Yuzuru, Ren's eyes were closed. If they were open, they might be able to see how red her face was even in the dark, from what she was doing as well as what he just said.

* * *

"_Ugggh… I'm horrible…_" Yuzuru thought as she continued to play her game. She covered her face in shame and shook her head, trying to push the memories of a few moments ago away.

After Ren had closed his eyes and drifted to sleep, Yuzuru kept running her fingers through his hair for a while. She couldn't help but enjoy it. It was adorable to her, how he would just fall asleep almost immediately when she started. Also, his hair was really soft. So, since she was already leaning over him, with both hands on either side of his head, and he was asleep…

Yuzuru had leaned down and kissed him on the forehead.

"_I'm such a damn creep…_"


	8. Runway

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

* * *

The next day, Ren woke up a little earlier than Yuzuru, since she was up later than him playing on her _DSi_. He stared up at the ceiling for a little bit, wondering what to spend his free time doing. He knew that he probably _shouldn't_ use his free time to work out, but he also didn't want to wake Yuzuru up by playing video games. He looked at the dumbbells that he got for Christmas. "_Well… my arms don't hurt too bad, so it can't be too bad to try them out…_" he thought as he walked over to them.

Before attempting to lift them, he looked over his arms to make sure there were no bruises or anything that he should be aware of. He felt some pain in his shoulders from where he was punched, but all he had to do to avoid hurting it even further was just avoid doing shoulder workouts. "_I can't do this for too long, or Yuzuru will chew me out…_" he thought as he lifted them up. They were heavy, at least to him, but he was able to curl them each a few times before pausing and slowly lowering them back to the floor.

He sat down to catch his breath for a moment, thinking about what to do to continue. "_I should probably make some sort of schedule, huh?_" he thought. He decided that each day, before anyone else woke up, he would do some curls, push ups, and sit ups. Those were about the only things that he could do without putting himself in danger. Everything else, even walking, he could only do for _so_ long before he actually was hurt.

* * *

Although he didn't intend to spend much time working out as it was, he really was rushing to get done. He couldn't imagine how Yuzuru would react if she woke up to him doing _exactly_ what she asked him not to do. "_She doesn't control me anyways…_" he thought rebelliously. Still though, he didn't want to risk anything. After working out, he went ahead and made breakfast for everyone. He didn't want them to have to bother doing it themselves, especially Ms. Nishimiya, who would be waking up and getting ready to leave soon. "_I should probably learn to make something other than bacon and eggs_." he thought while he set everything up. After a few minutes of preparing food, Ms. Nishimiya came out of her room. "Oh, Ren?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes. "It's so early. Is… that for me?" she asked, pointing at the food that Ren was plating.

Ren nodded. "I figured since I woke up early, I'd make everyone some food." he said with a smile. He danced around the detail that he had been working out and needed some food to fill the tank back up. "Ah, but I wouldn't want to wake anyone else up, what should I do with the rest of the food?" he asked.

Ms. Nishimiya chewed her food and swallowed. "Just leave it on their bedside tables. That's what you did yesterday, for Yuzuru, right?" she asked, "Also, if you're going to be working out in the mornings, you don't need to keep it a secret from me. But the breakfast is a nice touch." She said this last piece with a slight smile before heading out. "_Huh, so it was obvious? Maybe I'm sweating a lot…_" he thought. "_Oh crap! I don't wanna go into Shoko's room…_"

* * *

After discreetly putting the specially prepared eggs on Yuzuru's bedside table and leaving Shoko's breakfast on the counter in the kitchen, Ren took a quick bath. After he finished up, he dried off, got dressed, and walked back to the room. He felt fulfilled; he felt like he could spend some down time playing video games. However, when he got back to the room, Yuzuru was already awake and playing. "Well, well, well. What're you doing up and about so early?" Yuzuru asked with a fake smile.

Ren, whose legs hurt from standing to make breakfast, sat down on his cot. "Umm, making food for you, of course!" he replied nervously.

This made Yuzuru blush. "Well, th-thank you! But I mean, that's not _all_ you were doing, is it?" she asked pointedly. Ren decided that he would keep this a secret from her for the time being. As a result, he just played dumb. Yuzuru got mad, but she couldn't exactly prove that he was doing anything. "Whatever… wanna play some video games?" she asked, changing the subject.

* * *

Soon after they booted up a video game, Yuzuru got a notification on her phone. Ren didn't want to snoop on the conversation, but he subconsciously glanced over and saw that it was a text from "Miyoko." "Oh, Miyoko! Isn't that the super tall girl?" Ren asked. Yuzuru didn't answer; she was too invested in whatever Miyoko had texted to her. Feeling a little bad, Ren decided to just leave Yuzuru be for the moment.

Yuzuru looked back up from her phone. "Hmmm…" she voiced while staring at Ren and scratching her chin. "Wanna come with me while I visit my friend?"

During the walk to the designated meeting spot, Yuzuru explained a little of the conversation she had with Miyoko. Apparently, Yuzuru owed Miyoko a favor, and Miyoko was ready to cash it in. Ren didn't know anything about Miyoko except that she was very tall for a girl, so he was nervous about what type of favor she would be asking for. Seeing Ren's worried expression, Yuzuru said, "Don't worry, Miyoko is really nice. She wouldn't ask anything embarrassing from me."

Ren nodded. "Oh, what made you owe her a favor?" he asked, curious as to what type of antics both of them would get into. Yuzuru pretended not to hear the question, since the answer was embarrassing. The truth was, a little over a week ago, Yuzuru tried on a lot of her sister's clothes and had Miyoko tell her what looked good on her. However, now that Ren was in her life, she felt like she could, and _should_ forget about all of that…

* * *

Ren was not prepared for this situation at all. The two parties met at Miyoko's house, where they were promptly led in and moved to the backyard. Ren was utterly speechless at how tall Miyoko was. He was expecting her to be 170cm tall (5'8"), but upon seeing her, he realized he was lowballing it by nearly 13 centimeters. Another thing that threw him off was the other person with Miyoko. Ren, and apparently Yuzuru, were under the impression that it would be only them and Miyoko. However, another girl, probably the same age as Miyoko, but not nearly as tall, was there as well. "Oh, little Nishimiya? This is who you got, Miyoko?" she asked, at first directing the question towards Yuzuru, and then towards Miyoko.

"Well, not quite. Hello, Ren, it's a pleasure to meet you." Miyoko said, moving towards Ren and bending down to be closer to eye level with him. "You're going to be helping us out today, 'kay?"

Ren looked astonished. He looked from Miyoko to Yuzuru. Yuzuru was looking away and whistling, feigning ignorance. "_What the hell!?_" Ren thought angrily. He looked over to Miyoko and suddenly his anger subsided. Whether it was due to the fact that Miyoko was tall and imposing, or the fact that she had a gentle and soothing expression on her face, he calmed down and resigned to his fate. Yuzuru whispered over to him, saying "This is what you get when you aren't honest…" Ren sighed. "_Still mad about this morning? How petty…_" he thought.

"W-well it's nice to meet you too, ma'am." he replied to Miyoko with a bow. He could feel eyes on him from the other girl, as if she was trying to gauge his ability to actually be of use. Unlike Miyoko, this girl was scary. She reminded Ren of Ms. Nishimiya; very pretty, but eyes that seemed to scrutinize and stab.

* * *

In fact, they were doing more than just scrutinizing with their eyes. Miyoko and the other girl were using a tailor's tape measure to find all of his measurements. "Umm… what's going on here?" Ren said nervously.

"That's a pointless question." the other girl said. "Isn't it obvious? We're taking your measurements. You're going to model for us." Ren gulped.

Yuzuru laughed. "Yeah, Miyoko originally wanted me to model for them, but I decided to volunteer you instead!" she said. "Besides, it was a boy's outfit, so it made more sense for it to go on a boy, you know?"

"I still think you would rock the outfit, Yuzuru!" Miyoko said happily while moving around Ren to determine his waist size. "Wouldn't you agree, Naoka?"

The other girl, who was apparently called Naoka, shrugged. "I guess. I thought you were Shoya's little brother the first time I met you. Speaking of that, who exactly are you, Ren?"

Ren cocked an eyebrow. "You thought Yuzuru was a boy?" he asked. Apparently, he was surprised at this; it was obvious to Ren that Yuzuru was a girl from the beginning. Naoka, who was currently measuring his arm length, nodded. "O-oh, and I'm Ren."

"I know your name. Tell me who you are." she said. Time and time again, Ren was taken aback by Naoka's attitude.

"I'm…" he considered the question for a bit. "I guess I'm just a lucky kid who got picked up at the right time." He really wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't exactly a sibling to Shoya or the Nishimiyas, but he felt like they were his family. Naoka seemed to be fine with the answer, since she didn't press anymore about it. She and Miyoko went inside for a bit, seemingly to get something.

* * *

Ren sat down in place, so that his legs didn't get too sore. He looked over to Yuzuru. She braced herself, expecting him to be angry at her. However, he subverted her expectations by asking, "Do people actually mistake you for a boy?" Yuzuru blinked. "_What type of question is this?_" she thought while scratching her head.

"Umm… I mean, yeah." Yuzuru replied. "A few people have, and anyone I don't tell just sort of assumes that I'm a boy. Did the thought never occur to you?" She seemed a little shy about the topic.

"What? Of course not!" Ren said defensively. "Why would I-" Ren began to speak but he was cut off by Miyoko and Naoka coming back outside, holding something. Ren stared at it. "_...I'm wearing that?_" he thought to himself, completely stupefied. They were holding pieces of fabric with dark color but a large amount of flare. He could see several spots where the color changed ever so slightly, and sequins were used quite a bit. Yuzuru snickered, making Ren want to yell at her, but he stopped himself when Miyoko came over to him and held the coat out in front of herself with a "Ta-da!"

Naoka held the pants out in front of her as well, but she didn't add any sound effects. "You know, you should be happy. You're wearing an experimental design from a future famous brand." she said, confident in her and Miyoko's abilities together. Ren couldn't argue against this; it was true that the outfit looked masterfully designed and crafted, but he didn't want to be the one wearing it.

"Umm…" he said while holding the clothes in his arms. The other three were staring at him expectantly. "I'm not going to change out here, am I?" he asked. Miyoko slapped her forehead from embarrassment and led him inside to the bathroom.

* * *

Yuzuru was, for a moment, sitting outside with Naoka. "Hey, little Nishimiya." she began. Yuzuru looked up from her camera. She didn't expect Naoka to be here, and generally avoided dealing with her, but she had to be polite. After getting Yuzuru's attention, Naoka asked, "So, what's that boy's deal? He your boyfriend or something?"

Yuzuru blushed fiercely at this but she shook her head. "N-no, we're just friends. I found him starving and freezing, so…" she trailed off, but the answer seemed to be sufficient for Naoka.

Naoka nodded quietly. "I see…" she said while fumbling with some outdoor furniture Miyoko had lying around. "Well then… how are… you know…" she began to ask, but she didn't have the heart to finish the question. Yuzuru sighed, because she knew exactly what Naoka was asking about. Naoka used to (and claims she currently does) hate Shoko, because she saw Shoko exactly how Shoko saw herself. She also was hopelessly in love with Shoya, so after hearing the paired bad news that Shoko was going to ask Shoya out, she felt a little broken. Well, since then, she had come to terms with it, and doesn't necessarily hate Shoko anymore. She even motivated Shoko, who was worried about her likelihood of success in managing to date Shoya. However, her feelings for Shoya remained, and the topic remained sensitive for her.

"They're doing well. I'm sure you'd rather I don't go into detail, though…" Yuzuru replied, giving a soft, worried look to Naoka. Naoka just nodded and looked away. Yuzuru couldn't get a grasp of Naoka. Sometimes, she really sympathized with Naoka, but other times, she really wanted to knock her lights out.

"Thank you, little Nishimiya…" Naoka said while looking away.

* * *

Miyoko came back outside almost directly after the conversation, so she was thrown off by the difference in mood. "Nao, why are you crying?" Miyoko asked. Yuzuru raised her eyebrows, but she wasn't exactly surprised. She knew that Naoka would probably be torn up, and she also knew how frank Miyoko could be in pointing things out. "_Or maybe she just can't read the mood..._" Yuzuru thought and smirked a little.

"Sh-shut up! I'm not crying!" Naoka said to defend herself, but Miyoko just laughed and walked over to Yuzuru.

"So, I haven't seen you since I got back in town." Miyoko started. "I can still take you shopping later if you want." She said this in reference to a conversation they had a little while back. "I mean, I can see you've done awfully well for yourself since then, though…"

"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?" Yuzuru said angrily. Naoka was a little lost; it seemed like an inside joke was being shared or referenced between the two. Miyoko was referring back to when Yuzuru was trying to make friends. At the time, Yuzuru invited Miyoko to hang out once she got back in town, and they would shop for clothes that suited Yuzuru. However, as Miyoko gathered, Yuzuru felt comfortable with herself around Ren, so she didn't pursue the plans any further.

Miyoko smiled and giggled. "Oh, nothing. Anyways, we have to prepare the photoshoot! Yuzuru, you agreed to let us use your camera earlier over text, right?" she asked, and Yuzuru nodded. "All right, then! I can't wait! I'll even let you keep a copy of the photos too, if you want…" She said this last part slyly.

"Hahaha…" Yuzuru laughed dryly in response to Miyoko's suggestion. Though, secretly, she planned on doing this anyways.

* * *

After a few minutes, Ren came back outside, clad in the fancy outfit. Yuzuru stared, but she didn't say a word. Secretly, she was thinking of how good the outfit looked on him. Miyoko and Naoka looked him over, scrutinizing how it fit on him, nodding silently. "Well…" Miyoko began. Ren gulped, worried about whatever they were going to say. "I think it's a good fit, at least."

Naoka nodded. "It would definitely look better on an adult, but it is only experimental…" she said while having him move his arms and twist his body.

"H-hey, you two, go easy on him…" Yuzuru said. They weren't aware that he had just gotten beat up only a few days ago, so they were pretty confused. Ren reassured everyone, including Yuzuru, that he was okay, so they continued to have him move around. Yuzuru was completely engrossed with his outfit. "_This is amazing…_" she thought while she discreetly snapped a few photos.

* * *

They then moved him to stand near a tree in the yard, where he would do a few poses, and Yuzuru would take photos of each pose multiple times. From there, the photos were copied onto Miyoko's laptop. Miyoko gave Yuzuru a wink after copying them (as opposed to downloading them). Yuzuru just glared at her in response.

Ren got changed out of his fancy attire, taking extra care not to tear anything. After handing it back to Naoka, he asked, "So… did this help at all?"

Naoka nodded. "Yeah, now we know that we probably won't pursue this outfit in kids' size. No offense, though." she said bluntly. Ren was taken aback by it, but at least it meant he probably wouldn't have to wear it again. "That being said, it looked good on you. It just would look better on someone taller."

"I-I see. Thank you, ma'am!"

* * *

Ren and Yuzuru walked back to the apartment. On the way there, Yuzuru was looking through her camera, snickering. "I know you kept those photos!" Ren said accusingly. "Don't go posting them…" His original gusto wavered.

"Don't worry, they're in safe hands…" Yuzuru said while shuffling through her images.

After they got back, Ren was completely pooped. It was only noon, and he was exhausted from working out earlier and walking to and from Miyoko's place. He sat down on his cot and exhaled. "Do I get a turn on the DSi?" he asked, gesturing towards Yuzuru, who was preparing to boot it up and play it herself.

* * *

The next few days continued in a similar manner, excluding visiting Miyoko. Ren would wake up early, work out a little, make breakfast for everyone, go walking with Yuzuru, and then play video games. During the walks, Ren was only happy to be spending time with Yuzuru. If it weren't for her accompaniment, he probably would have stayed home and only played games. He wasn't quite sure why, but he felt like these walks meant more to him than most other things. Yuzuru would constantly take time out of her day in order to take care of him. But these walks in particular, felt deeper to Ren. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

* * *

As Ren laid, trying to sleep, the metaphorical curtain that obscured him from seeing his own feelings began to crack. Rust ate away at it, and it was now almost as if a sledgehammer had tried to smash it while it was becoming brittle.

* * *

"_Could these be counted as… dates?_"

He blushed and covered his face with his pillow, shrugging his uncertainty off. He steeled his nerves and set the pillow back in place. "_No time to worry about that…_" he thought. "_Tomorrow's going to be a big day!_"

In a few hours, Ren would be waking up. The sky would be normal, the world would be normal, but it would be a different day. _It would be New Year's Day_.


	9. New Year's Day

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

* * *

January first, or New Year's Day, marked the beginning of the biggest holiday in Japan. Businesses would temporarily close, school would remain out, and festivals would be held all to celebrate it. For Ren Fujisawa, though, it was also the day that he had designated to celebrate his birthday ever since he was little. Even when he was living with his relatives, they were not particularly caring and never bothered to tell him his actual birthday. So, as Ren had explained to Yuzuru, he just celebrated it on January first, no matter the accuracy of it.

Originally, everyone planned on celebrating Ren's birthday with him at a lazer tag establishment, perhaps directly after the New Year's festivals had ended. Yuzuru, especially, was excited for this celebration. However, due to the nature of an unforeseen injury, it was not likely that they would be celebrating in this manner any time soon.

The morning of New Year's Day, Ren began his usual routine, which he had only been doing for around five days now. This included waking up early for a light workout, followed by making breakfast for the Nishimiyas, who were kind enough to allow him to stay in their apartment until he recovered from his injuries. He usually was very careful about doing his exercise, in more ways than one. First of all, if he wasn't careful with how hard and what he exercised, he could make his injuries worse than they were initially. Second of all, if Yuzuru, his best friend, roommate, and _crush_ (this, Ren was only half aware of), found out that he was working out, she would get furious.

* * *

However, Ren's mind was far too preoccupied with the events scheduled for later in the day to be as careful as usual. Ren was under the impression that today would be a grand celebration, and whether or not he would get to go to lazer tag, he was still excited. Because Ren was so excited for today, he had enough energy to push himself harder, accidentally managing to wake Yuzuru up.

Yuzuru pretty much assumed that Ren had been doing this, since he would always eat his breakfast and bathe before anyone else. So when her eyes darted open, and she saw Ren on the floor doing push-ups, she was not entirely surprised. Ren, realizing his mistake, lowered himself back on to the ground and glanced at Yuzuru, whom he was certain would give him an earful. However, to the surprise of Ren, Yuzuru turned over in her bed, facing away from him. "Just be careful…" she mumbled as she closed her heavy eyelids once more. Ren blinked in surprise. "_Huh…_" he thought to himself as he continued his light exercise.

Yuzuru's eyes were heavy, but her mind was now wide awake. "_Please don't hurt yourself…_" she thought as she gripped her blanket tighter. She was able to accept that she couldn't control Ren, but she wouldn't forgive herself if Ren hurt himself. "_Not ever, but especially not before tonight…_" she thought.

* * *

The early part of today was a lazy day. Ren and Yuzuru mostly just hang out and play video games. However, they were playing separately. Ren was a little worried about this. On one hand, he was glad that she wasn't scolding him for earlier in the morning, but on the other hand, he was worried that she was mad. Also, the thought crossed his mind that she had perhaps forgotten about his birthday. "_Oh man…_" he thought as he was put in a weird situation. He refused to draw attention to it, yet he hoped that she had not forgotten.

Yuzuru spoke up. "Ren." she said out of the blue. Ren, who was initially staring at a TV screen, had his attention immediately drawn over to her, but she was still looking at the DSi that was currently in her hands. Ren wondered if there was a reason she didn't look away from the screen. "So, I don't think that we'll be going to lazer tag before the holiday ends." she said plainly.

Ren was relieved. "_So she didn't forget…_" he thought. He stared at her and nodded, but he realized that she was still looking away from him, so he voiced this instead. "I get it… and, um, I'm sorry about this morning." Clearly, he was assuming she had been upset about that. "Um, so, if you can forget about it, um…"

Yuzuru turned and looked at him with a confused face. "_Damnit! Now I feel stupid!_" Ren thought. He immediately realized that she wasn't upset or anything, she was just having a lot of fun playing video games. "Ah, nevermind!" Ren said, trying to erase all the confusion his assumption made. "Anyways! I'm glad you at least remembered…" He said this a little happily.

Yuzuru smiled. "Of course. How could I forget?" she said, now happy because Ren seemed to be happy.

"Then, it's all right- about the lazer tag, that is." Ren began. "But then, could we celebrate a different way instead?" Yuzuru tilted her head. "Oh, I know! Let's go to the New Year's Festival!" he said. The families had already planned on going, but Ren had been under the assumption that Yuzuru would probably want him to stay inside and rest.

Ren made this request in a somewhat open-ended way, so the embarrassed Yuzuru made a loophole from it. "Yeah! We'll all go walking together." she said, spinning Ren's words in a way that could incorporate Shoko and Shoya, and probably the adults if they wanted to. Ren smiled and nodded in agreement. However, he felt a little sad. "_Ah, man. What a bummer…_" he thought, but he shook it off. "_What am I thinking? Of course I would want to spend my birthday with my family too!_"

* * *

Ren was not very used to these types of festivals. The most he would do during them is get food from stands. Although he would see the different unique and interesting things going on all around him, like the dancing of a dragon or fireworks lighting up the sky, he didn't care enough to stay. This year, however, he cared enough to want to stay.

The boys departed together. Shoya came over to get Ren and say hi to Shoko, but she, her mother, and Yuzuru would all be taking their time with putting on yukatas. "You ready to go, then?" Shoya asked Ren, to which he nodded. Ren didn't have any formal attire for today, but that didn't seem to be an issue. Ren looked over to Yuzuru, whose hair was being worked on by Shoko, waved her "goodbye," and then the two guys were on their way out. "Hey, happy birthday, by the way." Shoya said while they were walking.

* * *

"Oh, you remembered? Thank you!" Ren said excitedly. He assumed that Yuzuru was the only one who actually knew about this, since she was the only one he told. Though, upon thinking about it, it made sense that Shoya knew too, since Yuzuru probably wouldn't have stayed quiet about something like that. "_She's too thoughtful…_" Ren thought, and then immediately blushed. "Anyways, what time will everyone get here?" he asked.

Shoya checked his phone. "Hmm… let's see…" he said as he checked to see if any emails had been sent to him recently. "I'm not sure." Shoya scratched his head. "Man, it could be anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour…" he said with a chuckle. Ren sighed and chuckled too.

"So, Ren. Are you excited to finally be attending high school?" Shoya asked as they both relaxed. They had been sitting on a hill near the festivities, in a spot that the Nishimiyas designated as the rendezvous point. Shoya hadn't properly talked to Ren in the past few days, since either he was preoccupied with Shoko or Ren was preoccupied with Yuzuru. So, it felt right to make extra conversation with him, especially since today was going to be treated as his birthday. "And have you gotten your test scores yet?"

Ren pondered for a bit. "Well, I am excited. But I'm also a bit worried…" he began with a dry laugh. "It's been nice, being free from school and all, but I owe it to you all. As soon as I can work again, that's what I'll be doing. You all have turned my life around, so I have to be able to pull my own weight soon."

Shoya rubbed his chin and said, "Are you going on about paying rent again, man? Look, don't worry about it. You know the Nishimiyas all love you, and they wouldn't charge you. And for if you come back to the Salon, me and my mother see you as family anyways."

Ren felt his face get hot. "_Love?_" he thought. For some reason, the word gave him butterflies in his stomach. "N-no, I wasn't talking about the rent! Though I still intend on paying…" he said the last part a little quietly, but Shoya was able to catch it. "Anyways, what I was trying to say was that you all have supported both myself and my journey back to a normal life, so I want to make you proud!" Ren didn't bring it up, but his previous guardians had high expectations of him, but offered no love. So now that Ren was receiving it, he wanted to meet and exceed any sort of expectations of him.

* * *

Ten minutes passed, and there was no sign of the ladies.

"Hey, Shoya." Ren spoke up. "So how did you and Shoko end up together?"

Shoya rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't sure how to answer this, but he figured he would give it his best shot. "Well…" he began. "We met in elementary school. But, um, I was kind of a jerk back then, so we only actually got close just over a year ago. We got really close, and Yuzuru and this one girl named Miyoko kinda pressured me into asking her out. Well, I was going to do that anyways, so it irked me a little, but their support kinda helped… Oh, and we've been dating for almost a month now, but we've loved each other longer than that."

Ren took a second to process this all. He rubbed his chin and nodded. He recalled how, at one time, Yuzuru told him that Shoko needed to learn to defend herself. Now, Shoya was saying he used to be a jerk. Ren got the picture, the one that Shoya was trying to avoid explicitly saying. However, that was in the past. "_Clearly, the past Shoya's practically a different person, since he's such a great guy now…_" Ren thought. Ren had brought this up because of a feeling that had been stuck with him for the past week or so. He thought back to when they all watched movies together- how he felt a little jealous. He thought that maybe hearing more about their relationship could give him insight on why he felt this way, but the most significant thing that Ren realized was about Shoya's past. He was still left completely in the dark about something that only he could know.

"Anyways, what brings it up?" Shoya asked. Ren just made some excuse up, since he didn't want to cause any misunderstandings.

* * *

Ten more minutes passed and the other Ishidas came by; they had been out for the festival and noticed the two sitting on the hill. Pedro gave a thumbs up to Ren. "I see you've been hitting those weights! Nice!" he said. After the other Ishidas left, Ren looked at his arms. "_What? They don't look any different…_" he thought, checking to see if a difference was actually noticeable.

* * *

Another ten minutes passed. Ren was beginning to worry that Shoya might fall asleep from inactivity, but he somehow managed to keep his eyelids from staying shut.

Finally, after a total of thirty-four minutes of waiting, the boys heard a familiar voice call out to them- one that wasn't from any of the Ishidas. "Thank you boys for waiting." they heard from the serious, yet happy sounding, voice of Ms. Nishimiya. Despite the noise from the crowds, the voice of Ms. Nishimiya pierced through the hazy white noise and immediately grasped their attention, making them turn their heads to see the source.

* * *

Ren was beyond stunned. Where he looked he saw three beautiful women. Ms. Nishimiya led the other two, wearing a blue, floral-patterned yukata, Shoko was wearing a red and pink floral-patterned tukata, and Yuzuru was wearing a predominantly red yukata accentuated with black stripes. Although Ren could acknowledge the beauty of the other two, he was completely captivated with Yuzuru at the moment. He made an audible gasp without even realizing it, something that Yuzuru pretended not to notice.

Shoya, too, was captivated (of course with Shoko, not Yuzuru). Ms. Nishimiya smiled at the two boys as she walked over. "Are you both ready to go? I apologize for the long wait." she said politely. Ren and Shoya both nodded, and they were off.

Much like the last time he was walking in a decent sized group, he ended up walking right next to Yuzuru. Although he was nervous much like the last time, he felt like he should make an effort to speak. "Y-Yuzuru. You look very nice!" he said with a look on his face that Yuzuru thought to be either stupid or nervous. Yuzuru blushed a little from the compliment, but she didn't feel like she deserved it. "_It's just a stupid dress…_" she thought. "_And it doesn't even look that great…_"

"Thank you. You look nice as well…" Yuzuru said the second sentence a little quietly. Ren blinked in confusion. He wasn't exactly sure why she said that, since he was just wearing a plain outfit that he wore at least once a week.

* * *

Yuzuru was having a dilemma. Tonight, she really wanted to spend a lot of time with Ren, with or without the others. However, she was worried about something, which she believed to be just recently confirmed. After Ren complimented her, she was worried that it was because he only felt this way when she put on her yukata. This made her feel like it was confirmed that, in order to perhaps gain the affection of Ren, she should try to act more pretty and girly. However, she simply was not used to acting this way.

To achieve this, Yuzuru made an effort to look her best today. She asked Shoko, who was very proficient at hairstyling, to give her somewhat of a makeover. She even considered putting on makeup, but she felt like that would be going a little far. Shoko was more than willing to help though. The two went shopping for a yukata the day before Christmas, but Yuzuru was not entirely willing to wear the one she found. This morning, though, she asked Shoko to help her put it on, and Shoko didn't hesitate at all.

* * *

They made their way over to a field, where plenty of people were flying kites (something that is traditionally done on New Year's in Japan). Ren noticed how Yuzuru, who was normally energetic and eager to play, was scarcely moving around. Although Ren thought Yuzuru looked really nice, it was unlike her to wear something that limited her from having fun, and flying kites seemed to be the fun thing to do at the moment.

As Ren was staring, contemplating this, Yuzuru noticed his gaze. "Is… something wrong?" she asked, self-conscious about her looks.

Ren shook his head. "No, I'm sorry…" It was apparent that neither of them were being upfront with the other about something, but this was neither the time nor the place to bring it up. So, instead of asking the other person about it, they both continued to watch the kites fly around.

The Nishimiyas, Shoya, and Ren had been there for two hours, walking around and enjoying the interesting scenery of the festival. When Ms. Nishimiya offered to grab some food for the others, Shoko insisted that she and Shoya come along with her. Shoya didn't mind it, so after asking what the two wanted from the stands, he went on his way.

* * *

Now that the two had privacy- or at least as much privacy as they could get in a somewhat crowded festival- Ren felt like bringing up some of the things that were on his mind. "Yuzuru…" Ren began. Yuzuru's attention was drawn immediately, and she was staring at him intently. "Um… thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday with me… I was worried you would want to keep me cooped up inside all day."

Yuzuru smiled. She said, in a tone that was un-Yuzuru-ishly gentle, "I would never. You weren't able to celebrate with lazer tag, so I wanted you to at least celebrate in this way." Ren just stared at her. "Hmm?" she asked. "Is there something wrong? You keep looking at me like that…" Again, Yuzuru was worried.

Ren shook his head. "No, sorry…" he said slowly, trying to piece together what he was thinking. "Umm… Yuzuru… Why are you acting so different? Do you always act this way during festivals?"

Yuzuru looked from him to the floor in front of her. "No…" she said quietly. To her, that was a sufficient enough response to end the conversation, but Ren wasn't able to let this go so quickly.

* * *

The curtain, once solid as steel and completely opaque, was now reduced to scraps. All that was once obscured to Ren was now clear as day. Almost all at once, Ren realized, about Yuzuru, the same thing that Yuzuru had previously realized about Ren.

* * *

Ren gasped. "_Holy crap…_" he thought as he covered his mouth. All at once, the thoughts and feelings that he had been pushing away came to him. The way that he felt when he was around her, the way that he blushed when she would wear something differently, the way that he felt like spending time with just her was more enjoyable than with everyone else. On top of everything, she was acting this way, as if she was being gentle for his sake. "_Yuzuru?…_"

Ren, long clouded by doubt and purposeful ignorance, realized that what he felt was Yuzuru transcended friendship. _Ren Fujisawa had a crush on Yuzuru Nishimiya._

"Then, Yuzuru…" Ren said slowly once more. He felt his hand inch closer and closer towards hers. "_Oh man, what am I doing…_" he thought with a gulp. "I liked the old Yuzuru more… so, um… please don't change…" Yuzuru gasped and turned her head to face Ren. Ren's hand, which had been right next to her own, was suddenly behind his own head, scratching his opposite shoulder. "_I hope she didn't notice that…_" he thought as he wished the butterflies in his stomach would go away.

Yuzuru stared at Ren, who was now the one facing forward. "Wait… did you actually?" she asked, entirely thrown off. Ren nodded in response. Yuzuru leaned back a little and sighed, realizing that her whole day, which she had dedicated to trying to be more pretty to impress Ren, was dedicated to this for a reason that was completely unfounded in reality. However, this was a relief to her. She stood up and stretched. "Phew! Thank goodness!" she said energetically, doing a complete 180 from how she was acting moments ago. Ren only stared up at her, happy that she seemed to be back to normal. "_So I was worried about this for nothing…_" she thought, and her smile got brighter.

* * *

Shoko and Ms. Nishimiya, who noticed the interaction, decided that they should leave the two for a few more minutes. Shoya was confused, since he was holding some of the food for them. Shoko shared a look with her mother and smiled at Shoya. "Shoya, we zaw your famiwy. Lezz go say 'ello! (Shoya, we saw your family. Let's go say hello!" she said warmly. Shoya smiled and nodded, glad that seeing his own family made Shoko smile, which indeed was part of it, but what Shoya didn't know was that this was also a clever (and relevant) excuse to give the younger teenagers a little bit more privacy. "_So cute…_" Shoko thought after seeing Shoya's smile.

Yuzuru stretched and sat back down. Her posture was noticeably more relaxed than it was before. Ren stared at her for a moment. For some reason, now that Yuzuru seemed to be acting how she usually would, she was suddenly way more attractive to Ren. This had nothing to do with the yukata, even though he _did_ think it looked nice. Ren gulped. "_Wait, what the? Attractive?..._" he thought as he stared at her. Yuzuru stared back at him. Because she was more used to her feelings, and was now able to act naturally, she was not as shy to be staring him in the face. He gulped. "_Damnit! She really is attractive..._"

* * *

Ren, however, who was new to the idea, was feeling several things all at once. First and foremost, he was feeling a little shy. Having Yuzuru so close before would have been completely normal to him any time before, but now that he realized his feelings for her were most certainly more than those felt between friends, he was not so eager to make eye contact. Ironically, he was also feeling a strong passion right now. While Yuzuru was concerned about her looks, Ren couldn't care less about them. Secretly, he had always felt like she looked good no matter what, just that it was more appropriate to bring it up while she was dressed fancily. After the allegorical curtains opened for him, he felt this way tenfold. So, while Ren was too shy to look at her, he was completely enveloped in the desire to do so anyways. This resulted in him giving brief glances, maintaining eye contact for the duration of the glance, and breaking it as he looked away.

Yuzuru noticed this strange behavior, but the look on his face made her laugh. "Man, you crack me up…" Yuzuru said with a warm tone and expression. "Ahh… thank you. For what you said earlier, that is. Shoko got me all dolled up, but I guess it was pointless, huh?" She raised her eyebrows. "_I should try and be a little more subtle, huh…_" she thought as she rubbed the back of her neck. "A-anyways, I'm glad that we're able to celebrate today, I was worried that you'd be sad about not being able to do lazer tag…"

Ren nodded. "It's okay." he said while looking away from her. An idea popped into his head- one that he was scared he would regret. "There is something else I'd like to do to celebrate, though…" Ren gulped. "_Okay… Now it's do or die…_" he thought as he looked over to her. He felt the urge to look away, but he decided against it. Something in her eyes showed anticipation and expectation. Ren was reaching over to place his own hand on top of hers. This time, Yuzuru noticed the movement, but neither of them shied away. She stared at him, her face beginning to burn just as Ren's had been.

* * *

However, a voice rang out, interrupting the two. "Hey, I got the food for you guys." Yuzuru and Ren turned around to see Shoya, holding the food they asked for up. The rest of the Ishidas and Nishimiyas were with him. They all seemed to be cringing, like they just watched something painful. However, Shoya was completely unaware of the looks he was getting. "Hmm?" he said, seeing their faces. "Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt something?"

Yuzuru and Ren shared a look, as if to ask whether or not they should confirm this, or even justify it with a response. With a shake of her head, Yuzuru communicated the answer. "Umm, no. Not at all!" Ren said, speaking for the both of them. They got their food and ate while walking, themselves remaining silent.

Ren's heart was pounding. "_God… how did today end like this?..._" he thought as he recounted what just happened. Ren felt that, especially after what just transpired, things would be awkward between the two of them. He knew that this topic would most likely come up again, but would he have the courage to finish what he attempted by then?

Yuzuru was in disbelief. She was so used to the shy, timid, scared Ren. "_Was he just about to hold my hand?..._" she thought, but she knew the answer deep down. She was also especially surprised that Ren made an effort to let her know that he preferred how she usually acted. That touched Yuzuru, since it meant that he was comfortable with her exactly the way she was. She pictured the scene that just happened in her head one last time. "_Yeah… he was definitely about to hold my hand._" she thought as she ate the food that Shoya brought, trying to use it as a distraction from the warmth and smile that both crept up onto her face.

* * *

As the day turned into night, neither of them mentioned what happened earlier. Conversations were normal, and tension seemed absent. Photos were taken, everyone all close together, without a hint that anything may be awkward between two of them. Everything was indeed normal; that is, until the fireworks show began.

Ren had never taken a moment to appreciate the fireworks before tonight. Spending time on things like this was the outlier of how he would spend his time during festivals up until now. So when he saw the bright, vibrant colors take hold of the sky, his breath left him. He and Yuzuru were both completely engrossed with the fireworks. However, a few minutes into the show, Ren noticed something from the corner of his eye. He saw Shoya and Shoko, sitting close together, admiring the fireworks not individually, but _together_. Ren remembered the jealous feeling he got before, and it suddenly clicked to him why he was jealous. "_I wasn't jealous of Shoya or Shoko, I was jealous of any couple…_" he thought as he scratched his cheek, trying to be inconspicuous. He saw them, and suddenly imagined that he and Yuzuru had taken the place of them. "_Her and I…_" he thought.

* * *

He suddenly looked at Yuzuru, who was still completely engrossed with the fireworks, enough so to be taking a photo at the moment. "Yuzuru." he said quietly, yet sharply enough to get her attention. A confidence had taken over him. Whether it was because everyone was somewhat celebrating his birthday, or because he was caught up in the mood that only being together with someone at a fireworks display could bring about, he felt bold. When she looked over to him, lowering her camera, he said, "Let's watch the fireworks. Together."

Yuzuru gasped. "Is this…" she began to ask, but she shook her head, as if telling herself not to question it. She simply scooted closer to Ren, setting her camera down, and enjoyed the bright flashes and loud "pop"s. A smile took over her face, one that she never began to imagine that she would wear.

And so, later that night, following directly behind Shoya and Shoko, who were holding hands, Ren and Yuzuru were doing exactly that.

* * *

A few more days passed, and the older kids as well as the younger ones had to dedicate their time to studies once more. Shoko went back to Tokyo, Shoya went back to the local college, and Ren and Yuzuru went to their high schools. Ren quickly proved himself to be a remarkable student, flawlessly passing every assignment in all of his classes except for physical education. He still would try his hardest, because of who was back at home that he could impress. Ren began work again, and soon moved back into the Ishida apartment. He was sad to depart from the Nisihmiyas, but he had some solace in the fact that he could visit them at any time.

Back at school, Yuzuru had become more popular. She had an air about her that seemed different than it did before winter break. She still did not feel comfortable with anyone enough to call them her friend, but she at least knew that she could actually talk to them now. She gained even more attention from posting a lot of her masterfully taken photographs online, as well as joining the Photography Interest Club, where her skills and experience immediately landed her as the president.

* * *

"Aww, did you not bring anyone any chocolate?" a girl teased at Yuzuru. Today was a special day; a day where girls would give chocolate to those important to them. She was in class, before the morning bell had rung, a prime time to socialize. Yuzuru found that she enjoyed this time a lot more during her second semester than she did her first semester. "Do you not like anyone?" the girl asked, still teasingly.

Yuzuru laughed. "That's a good one!" she said happily.

Several other girls were watching her, curious to hear her response. The mysterious Yuzuru, who climbed her way near the top of her grade, who joined the photography club, and who is close friends with and took amazing photos of one of the school's most successful alumni, seemed to interest them greatly. "Oh?" a girl asked. "So then is there actually someone you like?"

Yuzuru smiled warmly. "Yeah..." she began, clearly deep in thought. "Yeah, there is someone I like!"


	10. February

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

* * *

"Huh?" Ren said, pointing to himself. "For me?" He blinked as a baffled expression took over his face. A girl with an embarrassed look was holding a box of chocolates out towards him.

Ren, who was in his first ever semester of high school, had taken the ninth grade class by storm. He had a polite demeanor, grades that were at the top of his class, and a diligent work ethic, so he was the prime target of asking for tutelage amongst his classmates. Because he would scarcely decline helping his fellow students out, as long as it was during school hours, he had become more popular than he was aware of. This girl, who was holding chocolates out in front of her, was one of the people that Ren has helped with studying in the past.

It was very early in the school day, a time when students would socialize with each other. Today was February 14th, a day when girls would give chocolate to boys, as somewhat of a confession. Ren had completely forgotten that this holiday was today. After he realized, he smacked himself on the forehead. "O-oh, that's really sweet, but no thank you!" he said as kindly as he could, rejecting the girl who was holding chocolate in front of him.

Doing this made the male classmates around him start to whisper amongst themselves. After the girl went back to her seat, somewhat in shame, one of the boys near Ren whispered to him. "Fujisawa-kun. Why did you reject her man? She's so pretty!"

Ren scratched his chin. "Huh? Was she?" he asked, honestly and a little ignorantly. "Oh, and I rejected her because there's already someone I like." This got a rise out of the other students, but they had to settle down since the teacher just entered the room.

* * *

During lunch, Ren would eat whatever Ms. Ishida had packed in his bento (lunch) box and assist other students with assignments and studies. Apparently, his comment about having someone he already liked had circulated. While he was helping two students study for mathematics, a girl came up to him and offered him some chocolate. "I-is it me, Fujisawa-kun?" she asked, holding the chocolate up to Ren. After being politely rejected, she walked away in shame.

"Wow, Fujisawa-kun, you must _really_ like her, whoever she is, to be rejecting pretty girls like this." one of the guys he was studying with said. "I bet it's Nakamura-san, isn't it?" They boy gestured to a pretty girl who was sitting with a few other girls. She seemed popular, and she was near the top of the class; however, Ren couldn't be less interested in her, or whatever those students were asking about. Ren, who had his nose in his textbook, simply ignored the students. "I think that's a hit." one of the boys said to the other, mistaking Ren's silence for confirmation. "I wonder if he'll be okay…" a boy said sadly, gesturing to Ren. "I think she gave her chocolate to someone else…"

"Um… aren't we supposed to be studying?" Ren asked, a little annoyed from the chatter. "You two _did_ ask for my help…"

* * *

At the end of the school day, the boys who Ren helped study came up to him. "So, was it Nakamura-san?" one asked curiously.

Ren raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" he asked, confused.

"We're asking who you like, remember? We were asking all about it during lunch, tell us your big secret!" the other boy said.

Ren tilted his head. "Um, no, sorry, I don't remember anything about that. But no, I don't like her. And it's not really a secret, I like my girlfriend, of course!" Ren said happily. Ren stared at their expressions and cocked his head. "_Did everybody just assume this was a secret?..._" he thought to himself.

They both had a shocked look on their face. "Oh, well… Who is it then?" one asked while scratching the back of their head.

Ren smiled warmly. Memories of a recent event flashed before him.

* * *

He remembered the night of New Year's Day, just under two months ago. "Let's watch the fireworks. Together." Ren asked without a hint of nervousness in his voice. Ren was usually timid, especially around _her_; however, tonight was different. Ren was surrounded by people who supported him- by _his family_. They were all not only celebrating the new year, they were celebrating Ren's birthday as well. The original plan for celebrating his birthday had gone out the window, so Ren subconsciously replaced it with another- one that was spurred by his realization of his own feelings. Because of the sudden realization of his feelings, Ren was able to build enough confidence to attempt to hold her hand, but he was interrupted. He lost his confidence for the time, but his new plan for celebrating his birthday remained unchanged.

Ren had another realization about himself and the nature of his feelings not too long later in the night. The confidence that had previously been squandered was built once more. This time, though, he had no interruptions. He moved in close and took his shot. They stared up at the fireworks, unconcerned about the world around them. He was glad that she was facing the sky, because he was certain he would regret what he was about to do if they were both facing each other. In between the explosions of fireworks, Ren turned his head to face her, and said, "I like you." He turned back to face the sky. He began to shake from nervousness; he had just spent the last of his confidence. He had been nervous about how she would respond, but it had yet to set in until now.

Because he was facing the sky, Ren wasn't able to see her reaction. Ren was just getting ready to scoot back away from her when she spoke up. "...Are you serious?" she asked in a tone that took Ren completely off-guard. It wasn't demeaning, nor was it angry or confused. She sounded elated, as if the news she heard was too good to be true. Ren turned to see her face. She looked like she just heard that she won the lottery. "Can you repeat what you just said?" she asked for confirmation.

Ren gulped and turned back to face the sky. He was clearly too nervous to say it while facing any other way. "...I like you." he said. When he said it this time, his voice shook noticeably.

"I like you too!" she said excitedly. "I like you, Ren!" Ren turned to face her again. This time, he was the one with a baffled, yet happy, look on his face.

Ren saw movement just a few feet away. Shoko, who had apparently watched this interaction, was signing something to Ren. Shoya was still facing the fireworks, oblivious to what Shoko was doing at the moment, and even more oblivious to the interaction between the other two. Ren scratched his head, struggling to remember what the sign meant. By the time he was able to translate in his head, Shoko had already turned back away to watch the fireworks again. "_Congratulations!_"

Ren and her held hands, but Ren was very nervous to do this at first. Ren thought that, if she returned his feelings (which she did, of course), he would be confident enough to try and hold her hand, which he had tried to do earlier. However, he found that he was far too shaky to even attempt this. The feeling he had at the time was akin to almost tripping and falling, but catching oneself at the last moment. Seeing Ren's relieved, yet somehow nervous face, she reached over and initiated it. Her hand wrapped around his. "We're dating now." she said, as if to clear up any doubt, something that she was certain Ren would have. For the rest of the fireworks showing, as well as on the walk home, Ren and her held hands. That night, fireworks went off not only in the sky, but in their hearts.

* * *

Ren blinked. "'Who is it?'" he quoted, repeating what his classmate had asked. A cheerful smile spread across his face. "Her name is Yuzuru Nishimiya."

Ren went from school to the Ishida residence. Ren did start working at the local grocery store again, but as a student, he couldn't fit work into most weekdays. As a result, he only worked on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. He did work a lot of hours on those days though, so he wouldn't be making much less than he did back when he worked almost every day.

Ren swept up some hair from the floor for a while and helped prepare dinner for everyone. Over the past month and a half, he had become a significantly better cook, learning new recipes all the time. The door opened, and bells jingled, signaling that someone had just entered. "I hope you don't plan on eating all of that!" a voice called out.

"Yuzu!" Maria said excitedly. "Yaay!"

Ren didn't outwardly show it, but he probably felt even more excited than Maria to see Yuzuru. "You and I both know that I don't have the stomach for that!" he said with a smile, making them both laugh.

"Well then, hold off on eating that." Yuzuru said as she extended her arms, holding out a box to Ren. "Happy Valentine's Day!" For the first time in his life, Ren accepted chocolate from a girl. He didn't even wait for a second before taking a piece of chocolate and eating it. "I hope you know I want some of that too." Yuzuru said, and Ren, who was chewing at the moment, nodded in acknowledgement.

"Oh my! How sweet!" Ms. Ishida said as she clapped her hands together. Suddenly, she saw the books in Yuzuru's arms. "Are you two ready for dinner yet, or are you going upstairs?" They indicated that they were going to study upstairs for the moment, and departed.

* * *

When they walked into Shoya's room, Shoya was laying down, flipping through a comic book. He turned over upon hearing the footsteps coming towards him. "Oh, hey you two. Ready to study?" he asked, sitting up and clearing some space for the two to sit. "Hmm? Did Shoko send you chocolate too, Ren?" Shoya held up a box, identical to the one Yuzuru gave Ren.

"Oh, no. Yuzuru gave this to me!" Ren said, holding it open for Yuzuru to take a piece out for herself. Shoya stared blankly at him, then shifted his eyes over to Yuzuru, who was happily eating a piece of chocolate.

"I see…" Shoya said as he patted the floor, gesturing that the high schoolers could sit there. The two sat down and got down to studying.

At his own school, Ren had become very good at English, which was the subject Yuzuru needed help with studying tonight. Ren would ask something in Japanese, and Yuzuru would have to answer in English. The two studied for around an hour before they were ready to eat. Yuzuru went downstairs first, and Ren was about to follow her, but Shoya stopped him for a moment. "Ren…" Shoya whispered. Ren stared up at Shoya. "You said Yuzuru gave you that box?" Ren nodded his head in response. "I don't know if you know this, but when a girl does that, that usually means she likes you."

"...Shoya, Yuzuru is my girlfriend." Ren said plainly.

Shoya had a blank stare on his face again. "Oh…" he scratched his head. "_Maybe everyone was right about me, I really don't pick up on these types of things…_" he thought to himself. "Whoops! I guess I never knew, congratulations!" The two of them made their way downstairs, where Yuzuru was waiting for them.

* * *

Instead of eating at home, Yuzuru had been eating at the Ishida residence as of recently. Not only did Ms. Ishida not mind feeding another extra mouth, but everyone was glad to have Yuzuru there. Without Shoko at home, and with Ms. Nishimiya working longer shifts to get Shoko through college, nobody would be there to make dinner at the Nishimiya residence. This meant that Yuzuru did not see her mother much. A little while ago, she would've been happier this way, but her mother had been acting like a mother as of recently, so Yuzuru actually began to miss her. Since Ren worked on weekends anyways, Yuzuru spent her weekends having family time.

Though, during the week, and especially tonight, she wanted to spend her time with Ren.

After dinner, Ren put on a coat and prepared to walk Yuzuru home. "I'll be back soon!" he said to Shoya and Ms. Ishida. "Are you ready, Yuzuru?" Yuzuru nodded. Ren held the door open for her, and together, the two left for the Nishimiya residence.

While Ren was excited to be walking with Yuzuru, he was even more excited about something else. He placed his hand in one of his pockets. "_Good, it's still there._" he thought, making sure that his wallet was in its correct place. "_She still doesn't know that I know…_" Back in December, Shoko told Ren when Yuzuru's birthday is. He had kept the date, February 25th, on his phone's calendar as a constant reminder. The reason Ren was so excited was because he was finally going to be able to buy a present for Yuzuru, successfully this time.

* * *

Yuzuru stared up at the sky. "Hey, Ren." she began. "So what makes you like me, anyways?"

Ren's attention was snapped away from his wallet's presence, and it was immediately drawn to Yuzuru. "_Hmm… I wonder what she's thinking…_" Ren thought as he began to compose his answer. "_You know what? Screw that._" He suddenly decided not to answer with something carefully thought out, but instead he would answer spontaneously. "You're super. You're like a superhero, you saved my life! Plus, you've always been helping me, and you're cute, and you motivate me and-"

Ren was cut off. _Yuzuru had just given him a peck on the cheek_. "I was just making sure I didn't waste that kiss." she said in a cheeky, mischievous tone. "You always know what to say, huh?" Ren was feeling his cheek with his hand. "_She just kissed me…_" Ren thought, stupefied. Yuzuru laughed at his reaction. "Well, on second thought, maybe you don't always know what to say!" she said, making fun of his loss for words. "Anyways, we're here. Thanks for everything, see you tomorrow, shorty! Happy Valentine's Day!"

Ren snapped out of his daze and blushed. "You're the shorty!" he said, embarrassed, while he pulled an eyelid down and stuck out his tongue. "B-but, Happy Valentine's! good night! Sleep well!" He said this in a tone that reflected a different type of embarrassment. After Yuzuru went inside, Ren sighed and rubbed his cheek again. "Gosh…" he thought as he turned around and made his way to the electronics store.

* * *

Around Christmas, among other mishaps, Yuzuru figured out what Ren was going to get for her. Most people who have this information would be expecting to receive it for their birthday, in the scenario that they do not receive it for Christmas. However, Yuzuru doesn't even know that Ren knows when her birthday is. On top of this, Ren saved up enough money for an extra surprise gift. After spending a whopping 21,000¥, Ren walked back to the Ishida residence. On the way back, he was extremely wary of people nearby, since he didn't want to be mugged. He knew that he would protect the gifts over himself, but he still didn't particularly want to take another beating.

After making it home safely, Ren brought the gifts up to Shoya's room "Hmm?" Shoya asked upon seeing the gifts. "Oh, are those for Yuzuru?"

Ren nodded. "Yeah! Her birthday is really soon, but keep quiet about it." he said and put an index finger over his lips.

Shoya smiled and nodded in response. "Oh, and sorry for being so out of the loop, like earlier, I mean." he said, a little embarrassed. "I figured you two were just best friends, I mean, I never imagined that Yuzuru would date anyone."

"It's alright, I guess we never really told you. And really? Why is that?" Ren asked, genuinely interested.

"Well, I guess it's because she's just a little aggressive. And- um- no offense, but she kind of looks like a boy." Shoya said, being sure to say the last sentence with caution. "At least, she does when she's wearing that red sweater and those sneakers, and stuff. When she's wearing her school uniform, she looks more girlish."

Ren tilted his head. "Well, you're definitely right that she's aggressive! But I dunno; for some reason, I never thought she was a boy." he shrugged. "I've always kinda thought that Yuzuru was pretty, at least after I thought she was scary." He laughed a little.

Shoya scratched his head. "_Well… in a different sense, maybe he's right._" Shoya thought while picturing Shoko, who he saw as not only the prettiest girl ever, but as pretty in a much more conventional meaning of the word.

After a bit more chatting, the two laid down, Ren in his cot and Shoya in his bed. Ren went to sleep pretty early, but Shoya stayed up for a little while, texting Shoko. "_I wonder why he doesn't text Yuzuru…_" Shoya thought as he glanced at Ren's sleeping figure. Shoya just figured that Ren just had to go to sleep early because he was working extra hard at his school. Shoya just shrugged and got back to texting Shoko. Shoya was surprised that she already knew the two were dating. "_Man, this is embarrassing…_" he thought as he tried to change the subject of the text conversation.

* * *

Eleven days have passed since then. It is now February 25th, the day that Yuzuru Nishimiya turns 16. After school, Ren headed to the Ishida residence and picked up the presents. "_Okay, so she isn't going to be coming over because 'her mom is sick.'_" Ren thought to himself, recounting Yuzuru's excuse for not coming over tonight. "_How transparent…_" "Alright, Shoya, I'm ready to head out. Are you coming with me?" Ren asked. Shoya was Yuzuru's friend, so it would make sense that he celebrated too.

"Yeah, I'll come over for a bit." Shoya said, setting his college textbook down. They both put a coat on and began to walk to the Nishimiya residence. On the way there, Shoya gave everybody, shady-looking or not, who walked by a glare. He had become very defensive of Ren, and he vowed to not let Ren get hurt again. Thankfully, nobody bothered them.

"Alright, you ready?" Ren asked Shoya as they both stood in front of the door leading into the Nishimiya apartment. Shoya nodded, and Ren rang the doorbell.

* * *

Yuzuru was relaxing in her apartment, eating a little bit of the cake her mother made for her. "_Man, Shoko was so much better at this than mom…_" she thought, but because her mother was kind enough to make it for her, she decided against actually voicing this. Suddenly, she heard the doorbell and received a notification on her phone that somebody was at the door. "_No way…_"

"Hmm? Could you check the door?" Ms. Nishimiya asked Yuzuru from another room. "It might be one of your friends from school." Ms. Nishimiya knew that Yuzuru went out of her way not to remind anyone when her birthday is except for her own family, a few people at school, and Ms. Ishida. She didn't expect Ms. Ishida to come and visit, and she definitely Shoko to come all the way from Tokyo. She also knew that Yuzuru went out of her way not to tell Ren, or Shoya, who might tell Ren.

"Yeah, I got it!" Yuzuru called out in response to her mother. She stood up and walked to the door, standing on her tiptoes to look out of the peephole. Her attention was immediately drawn to Shoya, who was much more noticeable than the other person standing there, since Shoya was almost half a meter taller than him (Shoya is 6'1" while Ren is 4'6"). As she turned the doorknob to open the door, she noticed the other person who was at the door and almost shut it immediately after. "Sh-shit!" she cursed under her breath. "_He has a present! How the hell did he know!?_" she thought as she slowly opened the door.

* * *

"Yo!" Shoya said as he stepped into the apartment. "Heard it was your birthday!"

Ren stepped in after Shoya. He had a mischievous smile on his face, one that she wanted to throw her fist into. "Happy birthday, Yuzuru!" Ren said slyly. He was holding the gifts, which were neatly wrapped, behind his back. When he saw Yuzuru's expression, it made his skin crawl. "_Oh crap, she's pissed…_" he thought as he shakily held his arms out, trying to give her the presents. His mischievous smile wavered as her eyes bored into his skull; suffice to say, she did not take the presents from him.

"Umm, Yuzuru?... What's wrong?" Shoya asked, seeing her hardly-contained anger.

Yuzuru's expression softened a little, and she sighed. "Nothing, I guess." she said as she led the way inside. She cut a slice of cake for each of the boys and plated them. "Go ahead and sit at the table." The two followed Yuzuru's instructions. Shoya happily ate his slice, but as soon as Ren bit into his own, he knew it was not made by Yuzuru. He remembered how, at Christmas, she made the best cake he had ever tasted, and this was not of the same quality. He could only assume that Ms. Nishimiya made the cake, so he didn't complain. On top of this, it was not necessarily _bad _in Ren's opinion.

"Hmm? I'm surprised to see you boys here." Ms. Nishimiya said after she walked into the room. She sat down at the table alongside them, plating a slice for herself. "So, Ren, how did you know today's Yuzuru's birthday?"

"Yeah. How _did_ you know, Ren?" Yuzuru asked pointedly. She had a feeling that she knew how, but she wanted to give her sister the benefit of the doubt.

"Um… Sh...Shoko told me…" Ren said nervously as he cowered from Yuzuru's glare. Shoya's eyes widened, as he wondered why he had been kept out of the loop. "Please don't be mad at her though! I know you'll be happy when you see what I got for you!"

* * *

Ms. Nishimiya slowly sipped some tea that she had prepared for herself. She said "Yuzuru, let's all celebrate. It's only fair, since _you_ celebrated _his_ birthday." Shoya nodded in agreement, not wanting to see any sort of argument on a day that should be celebrated.

Ren looked to Yuzuru, who heaved a great sigh. "Look, I guess there's no going back now, but I wanted you to keep all the money you earned for yourself!" she said before taking a huge bite of her cake, chewing, and swallowing. "You definitely need it more than I do, I mean, you could save up for a bed or something…" She sighed again. Ren was giving puppy-dog eyes, and Yuzuru swallowed her pride. "Fine… give them here…" she said, gesturing towards the presents Ren had in his hands.

Ren first gave the present that Yuzuru would most likely predict. When she opened it, her eyes widened. Even if she was expecting it, she still seemed happy. Ms. Nishimiya's eyes widened as well. "Wow, Ren. That's incredible. I've been very pleasantly surprised by you boys as of recently." she said, gesturing not only to Ren, but to Shoya as well. Both of the boys beamed bright, innocent smiles from Ms. Nishimiya's approval. "_You two look so stupid right now…_" Yuzuru thought as she moved on to her next present.

Ren handed over the other present, the one that _should_ be a surprise. It was a long, thin, somewhat heavy present. Yuzuru inelegantly tore the wrapping apart, revealing a large camera tripod. "I know you take photos for your club, so I thought you might need something like this." Ren said while rubbing the back of his head. "I hope you like it…"

Yuzuru smiled and leaned over to hug Ren. "I'm sorry for giving you grief." she said quietly. "Thank you, this really means a lot to me." Ms. Nishimiya and Shoya smiled at the two's interaction.

* * *

After a little while, Shoya went back home. Ms. Nishimiya decided to give the two a little privacy, so she went into her own room. Left in the kitchen were just Ren and Yuzuru. The two were chatting happily over things like school and how their classes were going. Soon, the topic of classmates came up. "Well, there are some nice people in my class, but most of them are really annoying!" Yuzuru said with a laugh.

"Same here! I tend to keep to myself, but they're always in my business!" Ren said with a laugh. "Though, nobody gets in my business more than you. I like that, though."

Yuzuru blushed a little. "I'll show you who gets in whose business!" she said, a fire in her eyes as she stood up and put some cake icing on his nose. "Ha! There, now you're a tengu!" She said this, referencing the fact that the icing pointed outward from his nose, making it seem a little longer (tengu are legendary creatures from Japanese folklore noted for their long noses). Ren just wiped the icing off of his nose and licked it from his finger. "Aww, but I was gonna take a few photos." Yuzuru snickered to herself, and Ren laughed as well.

Since it was a school night, the time came soon for Ren to leave. Yuzuru walked him to the front door of the apartment complex. "Hey, thank you for today. You really outdid yourself, and I'm really sorry for getting so mad…" she said as she rubbed her arm. "I have something to give to you, actually." This got Ren's attention. "Turn your head…" she said, seemingly embarrassed.

* * *

"_A… kiss?_" Ren thought as his face grew warm. He turned his head to face away, his left cheek facing Yuzuru. He felt as she moved closer to him, her breathing tickling his cheek and making his own breathing pick up its pace. However, instead of a kiss, he felt something entirely different. "Ah! What the?" Ren exclaimed, shocked. Instead of feeling Yuzuru kiss him on the cheek, she dragged her tongue across it.

"Haha!" Yuzuru said excitedly, as if she pulled off some great prank. "That's what you get for asking Shoko when my birthday is! Just you wait, I'll get you back for actually buying me presents too! Later, shorty!"

Ren clenched his fists. "Shorty!" he called back angrily. "Good night! Happy birthday! I'll miss you while I'm at work!" The nature of what he said betrayed his tone, and it made both of them laugh. He wiped his cheek off and waved her goodbye.

"_Whatever…_" Ren thought as he kicked a stone on the street. "_I'd call today a success…_"


	11. Spring

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

* * *

"Ren Fujisawa, please report to the Faculty Office." a voice said out over the intercom.

Eyes were immediately drawn towards Ren. "_What did I do?_" Ren thought as he picked up his things and made his way there. Apparently, his classmates thought the same thing as well. Ren was not known to be a troublemaker, so nobody suspected that he needed discipline; and he made outstanding grades, so nobody suspected that he needed to be reminded of any assignments either. Once he entered the Faculty Office, his worries left him, instead letting anticipation take over. A teacher, which Ren did not recognize, had an excited look on his face, one that said "_I've got amazing news!_"

Apparently, Ren's entrance exam scores were so good that it gained the attention of a prestigious high school located in Kyoto. Apparently, he was called to the faculty office because a representative of that school wanted to interview and test Ren. Of course, his manners made the interview a smashing success. He was next given the test, which was much longer than he would have preferred. After he finished, he was sent back to his class, where instead of worrying about his test results, he worried about making up for all the assignments and lessons that he missed in the past hour or so.

* * *

To the guardian(s) of Mr. Ren Fujisawa

Ren Fujisawa has exhibited qualities befitting the top students of the nation. According to the faculty of his high school, which a representative of our school has interviewed multiple members of, he is well known for quickly taking the position at the top of his class, as well as being the hardest worker they have seen. They also note that he is always going out of his way to assist his fellow students in their work and studying. Finally, and most importantly, his test scores were far above average; his placement test for his current high school resulted in a perfect score, and the test he took after being interviewed by our representative resulted in a near perfect score. In short, our school is very interested in having him as a student.

Ms. Ishida stared at the letter she just received in the mail. She looked at the envelope, and her eyes widened. On it was the name of a very prestigious school, one that seemed to be only for the elite. She immediately checked the paper for any contact information for the school and began to type up an email.

* * *

Ren finished up school and walked to the Ishida residence. It was a Saturday, so he had to head to work right after. He worked later on Saturdays, since he didn't have to go to school the next day. He also stayed up later since he didn't need to wake up early for work on Sundays. He stretched out, wondering what to do. "_I kinda want to play some video games with Yuzuru…_" he thought, scratching his head. He reached for his phone, preparing to call her, but he stopped short. "_...What? I don't have her email address?_" Ren, despite his impressive intelligence, had somehow never asked Yuzuru for her email address. With a red face, full of shame, Ren asked Shoya to text Yuzuru for him, since Shoya knew her email address. "_How embarrassing…_" he thought as Shoya began texting her.

"Oh, she says she's sick." Shoya said, reading Yuzuru's message. He shrugged then looked to Ren. "Sorry, man…"

Ren scratched his chin. "Well… then I'm gonna go take care of her." he said as he began to exit the room. "Thanks, Shoya. I owe you one!" Shoya smiled as he saw Ren off. Shoya was really impressed that the timid Ren was heading over there despite Yuzuru making it clear that he shouldn't. "_That's so sweet…_" he thought.

* * *

After seeing a light indicator at the door, Ms. Nishimiya checked through the peephole. "_Oh my, how sweet…_" she thought as she unlocked it and let Ren in. "I'm sorry Ren, but Yuzuru is sick right now." she said plainly.

"I-I know, Ma'am! I've come to take care of her!" Ren replied politely, his face turning a little red from saying such words aloud. Ms. Nishimiya smiled; this was the only response that she wanted to hear. She let Ren in, and Ren immediately made his way to Yuzuru's room. He politely knocked before he entered. "Yuzuru…" he said timidly.

Yuzuru, who was laying in her bed, looked over to him. "Ren… you're going to get sick if you're here…" she said with a weak voice. "Go home…"

Ren shook his head and slowly took the towel off of her forehead. "I'm sorry, Yuzuru. But I'm not leaving until I make sure you're okay." he said with a tone of finality. He was disheartened when Yuzuru, who was generally very energetic and fiery, was too weak to argue with him. Ren went to get another towel for Yuzuru, then to bring her some hot ginger tea. Ren looked over at the video game collection and frowned. "_As if…_" he thought, then looked over to Yuzuru, who was resting her eyes. "_She's way more important than any video game…_"

Ren stayed with Yuzuru until she fell asleep, holding her hand all the way. After he was certain she was asleep, he stood up and tucked her arm under the covers. "Feel better soon, Yuzuru…" he whispered. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head before turning around and leaving the room. "She's asleep. Thank you for having me." Ren said with a bow to Ms. Nishimiya.

Ms. Nishimiya, who was sitting at the table with some tea, took a sip and smiled at Ren. "No, thank you, Ren. I'd bet her fever will break overnight because of your help…"

Overnight, Yuzuru's fever broke, and she was completely fine by the morning.

* * *

A few weeks later, as it began to get warm, Ren's physical education class was held outside increasingly often. Ren saw this as a pleasant change from being so limited to indoor workouts, given the pleasant weather and new selection of games to play with his classmates. He was sitting inside the Ishida residence, stretching his legs and recounting the day to Yuzuru and Shoya. "-and then, the ball went flying! I can't believe some people can kick so far!"

Yuzuru popped a piece of candy into her mouth and chewed. "Wabbout uh?" she tried to speak, but her mouth was full of chewy sugar.

"Umm, hold that thought, Yuzuru…" Shoya said with a laugh. "It sounds like you've been having a lot of fun in PE. I guess that also means you're getting better at exercise?"

Yuzuru swallowed the candy and cleared her throat. "Yeah, I was gonna ask something like that. You're talking about how all your classmates are doing, but what about you?" she asked before putting another piece of candy in her mouth.

Ren scratched his head. "Well… I've gotten a little stronger, but I haven't put myself to the test." he said nervously. Something popped into his head, and his expression went from nervous to excited. "Actually, I just remembered something! We're having a test next Monday!" Yuzuru and Shoya tilted their heads, so Ren clarified. "Ahh, I mean like, an athletics test! We're seeing how many pull-ups and sit-ups we can do, then we run!"

At the end, Ren's voice faltered a little, so Yuzuru's expression sharpened. "_You're not good at hiding things…_" she thought as she finished her candy. "Ren, how far do you have to run for the test?" she asked calmly. Despite how calm she asked this though, Ren jumped from the question.

"Umm… I'm not so sure, actually…" he said. Ren was a terrible liar, and Yuzuru was in no mood to hear lies. After seeing Yuzuru's piercing glare, Ren broke. "It's two kilometers…" he said, staring at the floor. "It's more than I've ever run…"

Shoya's eyes widened. "Hey, that's more than I ever had to do in high school, what the heck?" he asked, concerned for Ren's wellbeing.

"Listen." Yuzuru said, wrestling Ren's attention from Shoya to her. "The most you've ever run without stopping is, like, six hundred meters. Please, please, Ren. Don't push yourself too hard. If you need to walk, just walk." She maintained a calm voice, yet her urging for Ren to stay safe held a thinly veiled tone of worry.

Shoya, who tried not to meddle much, couldn't help but bud in. "Yeah, man. I don't want my little brother passing out or getting hurt or anything…" he said while scratching the back of his neck.

Ren gulped. "_'little brother'_" Ren thought, recounting what Shoya said to him just now. "_I'm sorry Yuzuru… I'm sorry Shoya… but now I have to impress you!_" Of course, on the surface, Ren simply nodded to reassure them, but on the inside, Ren was more motivated than ever to run.

* * *

Throughout the week, after spending time with Yuzuru and Shoya or working at the grocery store, Ren went on jogs. He would be sure to stay where streetlights were, since not only was he wary of the streets ever since _that_ incident, but Shoya refused to let him run too far from the salon. From the time Ren brought up the athletics test to Sunday night, Ren ran approximately a total of seven kilometers, averaging one per night. By Sunday night, he found that he could run at least a kilometer without stopping, even though he would be a little sore afterwards.

On Monday, Ren went about his day fairly normally. He completed all of his assignments during free time, took notes diligently, and helped his fellow classmates out. However, the last period of the school day was drawing near. This period was physical education. "_Man…_" Ren thought as he gulped, trying to force the butterflies in his stomach to calm down. The bell rang, indicating that he had to head over to his last class of the day.

"Today, you all will be pushing yourself to your limits." a teacher said. Ren was trying to focus on his words instead of the nerve he was feeling at the moment. "I'm sure you already know this, but you will be testing your ability to do the following: pull-ups, sit-ups, and a two kilometer race. Remember, everyone, stay hydrated! Now! If you will, make four neat lines in front of the pull-up bars!"

* * *

The shriek of a whistle shook Ren out of his daze as he made his way over to the pull-up bars. He was pretty confident in his ability to do pull-ups, since he was really light but still worked his upper body out a lot. Once it was his turn, he climbed up, grabbed the bar, and began to pull.

"_...Huh?_" Ren thought to himself. He let go a little disappointedly. Instead of getting a high number like he was hoping to, he only managed to do seven pull-ups. "_I guess it's better than some, though…_" he thought as he made his way over to the field where others were partnering up to do sit-ups. Thankfully, Ren had no trouble finding someone to hold his feet while he did his sit-ups, so once it was time for everyone to begin, he was ready. The objective was to do as many sit-ups as possible in one minute. Again, Ren was confident in his ability to do well, since sit-ups were one of the few exercises he tried to do every day.

"_...Huh?!_" Ren thought as he caught his breath. Ren sighed as he switched places with his partner, gripping his ankles. He had expected a high number yet again, but he only could manage to do thirty seven. He tried to clear his mind. "_No time to linger on that… I've gotta focus on the two kilometer race…_" he thought. A whistle rang out, and the timer started. "_Oh shoot, I've gotta count too! One, two, three…_"

After actually seeing the scoresheets, Ren felt a little better about himself. "Well, I guess I did better than average…" he thought aloud. However, he had little time to think about this as his teacher ushered the students to the track to prepare. Ren tightened his shoelaces and steeled his nerves. "_I can do this… I can be strong too… I can be strong, like Yuzuru…_" he thought to himself. The coach gripped his timer and placed his whistle between his lips. After counting down from three, the whistle was blown, and the race began.

* * *

"Hello, is this Mr. Shoya Ishida?" a female voice asked Shoya over the telephone. Shoya had woken up from a nap to a call that he had barely missed, so he called the number back.

"Yes ma'am, it is." Shoya replied. "_Oh, man…_" he thought as he anticipated the nature of the phone call. He was right to be worried. After hanging up, he headed downstairs and slipped his shoes on. "Mom, I'm gonna go and pick Ren up from school. I'll be back in a while."

Ms. Ishida's eyes widened, then she looked at her phone. "Oh, I must've had my phone muted…" she said while scrolling through her messages. "Yeah, I missed the call… Oh! Apparently Yaeko got the call too!"

Shoya tilted his head. "Yaeko?..." he said, thinking out loud as he tried to place where he had heard the name before.

"Yaeko! Ms. Nishimiya!" Ms. Ishida said with an exasperated tone. "I can't believe you don't know your own mother-in-law's given name!" Shoya blushed at this. "_She isn't that __**yet**__ though…_" he thought, but he decided against voicing this. "Anyways, go ahead and bring Ren to the Nishimiya apartment, she says it's fine. Besides, I'm sure Yuzuru would want to take care of him!" Shoya's eyes widened a little as he opened the door. "_Oh, man, Mom… if only you knew how upset Yuzuru'll really be…_" he thought as he made his way to the school.

* * *

"I can walk, you know…" Ren said tiredly to Shoya. Ren was being forced to ride piggyback on Shoya.

"No, you can't." Shoya said plainly. He was being over protective of Ren, and would not risk Ren getting hurt more than he had already today. "_Uggh…_" Ren thought as he rested his chin on Shoya's shoulder. "_Damnit…_" Ren recounted what happened just under an hour ago. The whistle was blown, and the race started. Ren was feeling extra motivated, not only because he realized he had done better than he thought on the other events, but because he had people he wanted to impress. Each few meters, the thought, "_do this for Yuzuru,_" would flash across his mind, and he never particularly felt like giving up. He was able to run the first kilometer without any issues. However, as he approached the total distance of 1300 meters, he began to feel himself give out. "_Crap, crap…_" he thought as he slowed down the pace, still not walking. "_I should've drank some water before starting…_" Because of his stubbornness and his desire to impress his loved ones, Ren collapsed on the track, having ran a total distance of 1332 meters. He woke up in the nurse's room, where, a few minutes after school let out, Shoya picked him up, _literally_.

"Ren…" Shoya said, almost waking the sleepy Ren up. "I know you probably went too far, but… I'm really proud of you. You did awesome..."

Ren choked back some tears. "Thank you, big bro…" he said while wrapping his arms a little tighter around Shoya. Shoya had a smile on his face. "_Big bro, huh?_" he thought as he carried Ren.

Ren dozed off a few times, but when he woke up, he was at the door of the Nishimiya apartment. "Ren, can you stand?" Shoya asked, concerned. After Ren affirmed that he could, Shoya let him down. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I want to be around for what happens. Good luck." He said this as if he was watching a loved one go off to war, and turned around to go back down the elevator.

* * *

Ren rang the doorbell, and Yuzuru quickly opened the door. She had an angry expression on her face, again, thinly veiling a worried one. Ren began to speak, explaining himself to make her painful expressions go away. However, Yuzuru cut him off by covering his mouth with her palm. "Don't talk. Come in and eat. _Then_, we'll talk." she said and led him inside. Ren went to the table, but he realized that Yuzuru was trying to lead him to her room, where a cot was laid out. Next to the cot was some food, which Ren assumed to be his. While Ren ate, since he couldn't speak with food in his mouth, Yuzuru spoke out loud. "You know, I'm really mad Ren. I told you not to push yourself too hard, to walk if you needed to, all for your own safety! I checked the weather forecast this morning and I knew that it would be blazing hot! I was so freaking worried that you had a heat stroke or something when my mom texted me and said 'Ren passed out at school.'"

Ren finished the food very soon after Yuzuru's tirade. "Y-Yuzuru…" he said nervously. She stared at him with daggers in her eyes, expecting some excuse or something. "I know you're really mad at me right now, but… could you hold off on that for j… just a minute? You can be mad at me later..." Yuzuru's expression softened as she saw the look on Ren's face. "_I'm a monster…_" Yuzuru thought, seeing Ren's eyes brim with tears and his lips tremble. "But right now, I just… really need a hug…" At this, Yuzuru lunged forward, tackling Ren with a hug as he let a stream of tears fall down his face and onto his cheeks and Yuzuru's clothes. "I tried so hard, but I'm still so weak…" he said in between hiccups and sniffles. "I just wanted to be strong like you, Yuzuru… I just wanted to impress you…"

Yuzuru felt immediate guilt for getting angry at Ren just a few minutes ago. She helped Ren sit back up and stared him in the eyes. After wiping a tear from his cheek, she swallowed her pride and said, "You did impress me, Ren. I was… really worried about you, and I'm still a little upset that you went so hard that you passed out, but… the amount of work you put in astonished me. When Shoya told me that you were able to run a kilometer without stopping, all I could think of was how much you had improved in only a week. And then, today, I was told that you ran a whole three hundred meters more than that!"

Ren's crying stopped, but he went in for another hug. "I'm really sorry, Yuzuru. I… still want to impress you, but I don't want to hurt or worry you again…" he let go of the hug. "Wait, how did you know that I ran 1300 meters?"

Yuzuru faked a laugh and scratched her head. "Lucky guess, probably!" she said while getting up to turn on a gaming console. Ren wasn't convinced, but he wasn't too concerned with that. He knew that she had connections within his school, so he was sure she heard reports of some sort. He wiped his eyes dry once more and scooted up next to Yuzuru. He rested his head on her shoulder, and she began to play with his hair absentmindedly. She was practicing her skills on "Smash," a game that she wanted to maintain her victory streak on. "Wanna play a few rounds?" she asked, handing a controller over to him. She didn't receive a response, however. "_Oh, whoops!_" she thought as she realized she had unintentionally put the already tired Ren to sleep by playing with his hair.

* * *

Over a month passed, and the school year was drawing to a close. Ren got to the Ishida residence, where he began to help Ms. Ishida prepare dinner for everyone. However, as he began to help, she stopped working and began fiddling through some papers she had on the table. He shrugged. "_I don't mind helping extra, if it's for my family!_" he thought as he picked up the work she left behind. Ms. Ishida suddenly appeared next to him. "Hey, Ren!" she said with a bright, cheery expression. "I've got some really good news for you!"

Ren tilted his head. "Hmm? Did Shoya finally propose to Shoko?!" he asked excitedly, his face lighting up.

Ms. Ishida chuckled. "I wish, but no. Actually, do you remember taking any sort of advanced tests earlier in the school year?" she asked. Ren had to dig through his memory. He nodded, confirming that he had taken one. "Well… your score came in the mail today…" She was adding an artificial slowness in how she said this, building the tension. "Ta-da!" she said as she flashed the test results.

"Woah! That's really good! I thought I'd get way lower than that…" Ren said. The score report indicated that Ren received 3145 out of a possible 3200. Supposedly, this was among the top 2% of all the scores of all the people who had taken the same test.

"This means… Ta-da!" she said once more. She showed a letter of recognition and acceptance. "You've been accepted into one of the top schools in the whole nation! Isn't that incredible, Ren?" she asked, astonished. "Oh, but, you don't have to go if you don't want to!"

Ren was taken aback. "I-I didn't even know I was being applied there! That's really amazing!" Ren said, staring at all the papers before him, completely in awe.

"And now for the… other… news." Ms. Ishida said with an air of caution. "Umm… supposedly, your real parents, and aunt and uncle, have been declared dead…" She checked his expression, but this seemed to not be news to Ren. "So, since this was the case, and the application form for your school needed to be signed by a legal guardian, I…" she stopped talking and held the last piece of paper in front of her. "Ta… da?" She was troubled by Ren's expression, as he stared at the adoption form.

He was crying, but with a huge smile on his face. He ran in and hugged his new mother. _From today forward, Ren would be known interchangeably as Ren Fujisawa or Ren Ishida_.

* * *

Ren had trouble deciding whether he should go to the new school. While he loved the idea that he could be in a prestigious school that would increase his chances of success and make his loved ones proud, it was in Kyoto, which was almost two hours away from this town, so he would definitely have to move over there. Ren told Yuzuru about this almost as soon as he heard the news himself. "I just… am conflicted, you know? It's so far away, and I know that your sister moved all the way to Tokyo, and stuff, so…" Ren was rambling to Yuzuru at the moment.

"I just… don't want to leave you all behind." he said sadly. He turned to face Yuzuru. "Especially you, Yuzuru…"

Yuzuru blushed and laughed. "You're overthinking this!" she said heartily.

Ren stared at her. "I-I know, I know, but I can't help it! I'm gonna miss you, and-" Ren was cut off. Placed on either side of his face was Yuzuru's hands, which were forcing him to stare her in the eyes. She placed her forehead on his own, as if to comfort him and calm him down.

"You'll call. And if you don't, I will." Yuzuru said serenely while gently feeling Ren's face. "I think you should go to the prestigious high school. It wouldn't be fair to you if I didn't let you; you're always complaining about how easy your classes are!"

Ren blushed a little. "O-oh! That reminds me! Umm… c-can we exchange contact information?…" he said. The further into the sentence Ren got, the redder his face became.

Yuzuru grinned and snickered. "It's about damn time!" she said as she handed Ren her phone. "I expect to get a lot of calls from you now!" After the two exchanged contact information, they played some video games, of which Yuzuru brought over, and chatted.

* * *

Spring lasted a long time. Ren ended up deciding to attend the prestigious high school. He also began to work less hours, despite being on spring break. His philosophy was that, before he left for Kyoto, the time he had with his friends and family, and most importantly, Yuzuru, was far more important than making money. His scores for his entrance exam was so high that his high school didn't charge Ms. Ishida, who was now his mother, a single yen. Ren also knew that, since Kyoto was only two hours away by train, he would try to come back home every weekend.

So, after a long spring break, filled with spending time with the people who meant the most to him, Ren packed his bags and prepared to leave. Ms. Ishida was sitting in the car, waiting for Ren to get ready to drive him to the train station. All of Ren's bags were packed and in the car, but there were still a few things to be done.

"I love you, Shoya." Ren said as he tightly hugged his older brother. "Thank you for always protecting me, and being my older brother…" Both of the boys tried their hardest not to cry at the goodbye, but a few tears escaped regardless.

Shoya went back inside to properly let his tears out, so standing outside were only Ren and Yuzuru. "Yuzuru… I…" Ren gulped. He steeled himself, preparing to say words to her that he had never said before, since he felt like he was not yet ready to. "I love you, Yuzuru…"

Yuzuru gasped as her eyes watered a little. "I love you, Ren." she said as she closed in for a hug. "I'm gonna miss you… you better call me once you're at your apartment…" She said this while letting a few tears out. After her eyes stopped leaking and her voice stopped shaking, she let go. An embarrassed smile took over her face. "Hey shorty, turn your head for me…"

Ren smiled, not only happy that Yuzuru wasn't crying anymore, but that she was still the same fun-loving, mischievous, energetic girl that he met in December of last year. He knew that even a little crying wouldn't stop her from pulling some sort of prank on him. "I know you're just gonna lick my face again, shorty!" Ren said, fired up now. "Sorry, but you won't trick me a third time!"

Yuzuru's expression became one of exasperation. She had something else in mind, but she knew she would just be like _The Boy Who Cried Wolf_, having fooled Ren before. "Alright, fine then." she said as she grabbed Ren's face, placing her hands softly on either side of it, and pulled him closely. She let her lips meet his own, holding them together for a moment. After their lips broke apart, Ren stared, astonished at Yuzuru. "You're gonna miss your train, get going! See you later, shorty!"

And with that, Ren departed to start life at his new high school.


	12. The New Ren

This story takes place after the manga. It includes an OC, and the events that take place are not canon. I do not own anything in my fanfiction except my OC. I plan on pairing this fanfiction with another one, centered on Shoko and Shoya.

**Author's Note 6/15/20:** Thank you very much for the support! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update the story! Seeing some of the reviews I have, though, inspired me to continue!

* * *

"Mr. Ishida, what is the answer to the problem on the board?" a teacher asked. Ren was not a student known to daydream, doze off, or not know the answer to a question. However, for the first time in his life as a student, he did not stand when called on immediately. "Mr. Ishida?"

Ren's eyes widened. "_Oh crap, that's me!_" he thought as he stood up. For a brief moment, Ren had completely forgotten that his last name had changed from Fujisawa to Ishida. Ren steadied his breath, since he was panicking from just a second ago, and answered the question flawlessly. "_That was a close one…_"

* * *

Ren's high school life could be considered anything except normal, by the standards of his friends and family. For starters, Ren only began high school a semester into his 10th grade year, so he was a semester behind on credits. In his prestigious high school, he has to go to a cram school after school to catch up on classes and courses that he missed last year- though not for very long given his work ethic and skills. On that note, his high school life had been abnormal due to his aforementioned skills. Ren had an incredible brain and picked up on concepts and patterns quicker than 99% of Japanese students. Because of this, he was picked up to go to a prestigious school in Kyoto, meaning he transferred high school and moved away. For all of the previously asserted reasons, Ren had some sort of indication that they would happen before they did. For his beginning late, he knew this because his family encouraged him to enroll during the winter. For transferring, his adopted mother informed him of this before the summer break leading into the school year.

There were, however, things that would not be considered normal that were unforeseen and unforeseeable. To preface this, Ren had a solid plan for how the school year would go. He would attend normal school hours, go home and study/do homework, do a small workout, then go to course recovery several hours after school let out (this step would only last for the first month and a half of his school year). Every weekend, he planned on going back home to visit his friends and family- and most importantly- his girlfriend.

* * *

Things did not go as planned, however. During the school festival that preceded the school year, Ren explored the grounds to locate all of his classes. The whole time, clubs and organizations harassed him, trying to get the new face to join. Ren was initially dismissive of these clubs, since he didn't think he would want to join any. However, after brushing away the Concert Brand and Swimming Club, he was caught off guard by one. "_Judo Club?..._" Ren thought as he saw the sign and the people wearing gis. He shook his head and walked away, but his mind could not help but wander. Ren did plan to work out a little every day, so what difference would it make if it were for a club. Ren pondered the pros and cons. "_Well… it would help me learn self defense… but it would eat into my free time…_" he thought.

Ren lingered for a moment, drawing the attention of one of the gi wearers. "Hello there, new student!" he said warmly. "Your hesitation makes me believe you're somewhat interested in Judo! My name is Iwata Takeshi, I am the captain of the Judo Club. You seem to be interested; would you care to join us for the first practice? The first practice does not bind you to the organization, it is entirely for those who are debating whether or not to join."

Ren felt a little dizzy, as the other unforeseen detail that made his high school life abnormal reared its head. "This place is so high class…" Ren thought as he listened to the eloquence of the Judo Club captain. He took the man for a dense meathead, but he misjudged completely; apparently even the athletes were top notch. Ren was no longer a big fish in a small pond, nor was he a big fish in a big pond. Ren was now a big fish in a huge lake. After regaining his composure, Ren decided to give an answer to the polite man standing in front of him. "I would very much like to join the club, Takeshi-senpai."

* * *

"Hey, Ren! How did the school festival go?" Yuzuru said. Despite promising to call first, Yuzuru beat Ren to the punch and called as soon as she got home from her own school, since Ren would definitely be in his dorm by then. "Are all your classes close to each other?"

"Jeez, you're competitive about the weirdest things…" Ren said, as his thumbs were right about to press the call button for Yuzuru when she called him. After hearing Yuzuru snicker for a bit, Ren answered her questions. "And I had a great time! The food all over was really good, even though it was made by students. Oh, and all my classes are pretty spread out, but it'll be fine! Everyone seemed super smart, so I can already tell that I won't be helping many people with studying!"

Yuzuru smiled. "So you'll get more free time, huh? What will you do with your lunchtime then?" she asked, twirling a finger through her hair. Ren paused a moment, prompting Yuzuru to laugh some more. "Man, was your lunch time really _that_ centered around studying with others?"

Ren laughed too. "It was, but I can just study by myself!" he said, but paused after. He thought about what she said. "_More free time, huh?_" he thought, though he knew he would definitely have less free time now than ever. He realized that the pause had stopped the conversation in its tracks and wanted to save face real quick. "Oh, but speaking of which, how will studying work for you since I'm not there? I mean, Shoya will still help right?"

"Yeah, of course he will." Yuzuru replied. There was another silence; Ren was not used to phone calls, especially when there were things being left unsaid. First off, Yuzuru could tell that Ren was avoiding talking about something by the way he paused and the shift of tone. On the other end, Ren was left uncomfortable by Yuzuru's lack of words now. "So," Yuzuru began, breaking the silence. "Did something happen, man? You know, I don't have to see your face to know that something's on your mind."

Ren's shoulders slumped a little. "You know me so well…" he said with a sigh. "That's why you're so cool, Yuzuru. Yeah, something happened, but I don't think you'll be happy about it." Yuzuru felt her heart race quicken. "_Did… a girl flirt with him?_" she thought, her insecurities getting the better of her. They were quickly dissipated when Ren explained. "I… joined a club. Which means that I'll have less free time… so…"

"...So?" she asked, prodding him for more information. She was never the patient type, but this was more apparent over the phone.

"I don't think I'll be able to visit until summer break, Yuzuru." Ren said sadly. "I'll definitely have to study every night, but with everything going on, a round trip to home and back will make studying impossible…" There was another silence, something that seemed to happen a lot in this conversation. "I-I'm sorry, Yuzuru! I can quit the club, I haven't ordered the gi!"

Yuzuru snickered a little to herself. "_So he joined a martial arts club…_" she thought, shaking her head in disbelief. "You don't have to quit." she said calmly.

"Yuzuru? Are you sure?..." Ren asked, unable to read her tone. It seemed sad, yet happy; shocked, yet unsurprised. "I've regretted signing up for it since I did. It was spontaneous, it just felt right at the time…"

"Ren, don't quit your club. It's okay, really." she replied, still not quite convincing Ren. "Look, I'm sad about it, but nothing is going to change that I'll miss you. Hell, I miss you right now and I saw you less than a week ago, plus I'm talking with you right now!" She said this with an excited tone, but it got calmer and more serious after a moment. "But I think this is important. I know how much you've wanted to learn how to fight, so I would never take this opportunity away from you. Just… don't lose so much free time that you can't call."

* * *

Ren and Yuzuru began to support each other from afar, knowing that they would not be able to do so in person for quite some time. Every night, Yuzuru would show Ren the photos that she took from her Photography Interest Club, and Ren would describe what he did for Judo practice. They talked about the friends they made. Ren was less social, since he did not need to help people with studying very often, but the ones he did became somewhat friends. Additionally, other top-tier students saw him as a frenemy, and the members of the Judo Club were protective of him. For Yuzuru, she became unintentionally popular due to her association with Miyoko and Naoka, as well as her good grades. She was well respected in her club, since she was the most skilled as well as the president, so she made some friends that way too.

* * *

"As you know, beginning tomorrow is summer break. Do not let idleness dull your senses or skill." the Judo teacher said to his pupils. "I must say, all of you have impressed me. Those of you who can make it to summer practices must. If you cannot, then you must inform Takeshi. You must also practice on your own."

After they were dismissed, Ren stood up and wiped sweat off of his forehead. They had a particularly tough practice that day, so they could reinforce all of the skills they had learned up to that point. Ren made his way to Takeshi-senpai, who was readjusting his gi after a challenging match. "Ahh, Takeshi-senpai. I will be going home during summer. Do you have any sort of practice schedule that would help me?"

"Ahh, Fujisawa-san. It's a shame, I had hoped you would stay and practice." Iwata said warmly. "I was not aware that you did not live closeby, but it is alright." He handed Ren a paper, detailing how he could practice over break.

"Thank you, senpai." he said with a bow. He left the practice room and stretched his arms. "_I'll be going home tomorrow…_" he thought as a large smile spread across his face. "_I'll get to see everyone… Mom… Ms. Nishimiya… Shoya… Shoko… Yuzuru…_"Ren balled his left hand into a fist, flexing his bicep a little as he did so. He admired the muscle that had grown, one that seemingly did not exist until recently."_...And everyone will get to see me._" Ren balled his hand into a fist, flexing his bicep a little as he did so. He wanted to show everyone that he was not the same Ren Fujisawa or Ren Ishida that he used to be.

* * *

Ren fell asleep on the train pretty easily. He stayed up late despite being tired from training so hard the previous day. He got a head start on his summer homework, on top of talking to Yuzuru for around an hour. When Ren awoke, he was back in the town where his heart resided. "Long time no see, Ren!" Ms. Ishida said, waving to him from her car.

Ren was happy, really happy. He had gotten accustomed to living in his dorm in Kyoto for a little while, but nothing compared to the simple, comfortable, welcoming Ishida home. He stretched his legs out and shut his eyes. He didn't mean to fall asleep, but he couldn't help it; he woke up when he was at the Ishida residence. "_Oh, man…_" he thought, rubbing his eyes. He walked inside to set his bags down. "_Oh, Shoya's not here… I guess he's picking Shoko up._" Ren sighed, wishing that he could show off his progress to his older brother. After he sat his bags down on the floor of Shoya's room, he turned around. His eyes widened as he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

"Hello?" he answered. "You really don't have any patience, do you…"

"Shut up." the warm, welcoming, lovely voice of Yuzuru said. "I've been waiting four months to see you, so hurry up and come over."

Ren smiled warmly as he stepped out of Shoya's room. "I've missed you too, Yuzuru…"

* * *

"Ren, sit down." the cold, intimidating voice of Ms. Nishimiya said to him. Yuzuru was already sitting down, hanging her head in shame with a very red face. Ren immediately got a bad feeling when he stepped in the Nishimiya apartment. Ren slowly sat down, staring from Yuzuru to Ms. Nishimiya. "Ren, when was the last time you checked your height?"

Ren was confused. "U-Umm… I think just over two years ago, at the doctor's office…" he replied. He had no clue where the question came from, and was dubious as to where this would lead.

"Come over here, I'm going to check your height for you." Ms. Nishimiya said. Ren stood up, walking over to the wall where she was standing with a pencil. "How tall do you think you are right now, Ren?"

"U-uh… maybe, like, 140 centimeters…" he said with a nervous tone. He knew that he had grown; he had been around 137 centimeters the last time he was in town. He did not expect to have grown more than an inch though.

Ms. Nishimiya marked at the top of his head and shook her head. Yuzuru looked on in horror and embarrassment. "No, you've grown more than you thought. Yuzuru, do you see this? I was right, wasn't I?" she asked Yuzuru, pointing at the mark on the wall, labelled '148cm.' Ren was taken aback more than anyone else. "_When did I get so tall?_" he thought, considering 148cm (around 4'10.5") to be tall. "So, you may sit back down now. I apologize for making you sit and stand so much, but I want your full attention." Ren sat down again and stared. "So, this is probably an uncomfortable subject, but there is no doubt in my mind that you've hit puberty."

Now Ren was also hanging his head in shame, alongside Yuzuru. "Now, don't take this the wrong way," Ms. Nishimiya continued. "...but you can't spend the night here anymore, at least in Yuzuru's room. I don't think I have to say anymore, so I don't think I will. Leave the door open while you're hanging out." She concluded her speech and stood up.

* * *

After she walked away, Ren and Yuzuru shared a look with each other. "I'm sorry about that…" Yuzuru said. "Ms. Ishida told my mom how much taller you had gotten, and she got worried. Though it's not really fair, I don't think she had this talk with Shoko…"

Ren shrugged. "I-it's okay. I should've noticed how much taller I'd gotten these past few months. Besides, I think it's sweet that your mother is being protective of you!" he said kindly. "Is it really so noticeable, though?" Ren rubbed his chin, deep in thought. A mischievous smile spread across his face. "Hehehe… you can't call me shorty anymore, can you?"

Yuzuru stared at him with fury in her eyes. "_No way… 148 centimeters…_" she thought as her blood boiled. She stood up, hoping to prove him wrong or to at least attack him for being correct. Ren stood up too, and for the first time, he stared down at Yuzuru. "_How…_" she thought. The last time she saw Ren, he was just about eye level with her, but he had grown around significantly since then. She balled her hands into fists while he stuck his tongue out. "See? Told ya so, shorty!" Ren said teasingly.

* * *

"Okay, okay, I give! Aggh!" Ren cried out in pain. He was in a chokehold, on the ground. "_How the hell did she manage that?..._" he thought as he struggled to break free. "I won't call you shorty anymore!" He tapped the ground twice, signaling his admittance of defeat. After Yuzuru let go, he massaged his throat. "Jeez, it's been four months since he hung out and the first thing you do is try to kill me… that's so… you." Ren smiled warmly, though he was still massaging his neck. "I wouldn't have it any other way…"

* * *

The two went to Yuzuru's room to play video games right after. Yuzuru absolutely crushed Ren the first few rounds, since he was so rusty, but towards the end the gap between their individual skill began to close. Fearing a loss if she continued, Yuzuru turned the game off, cutting her losses. "Haha! You're on a losing streak today, man!" she teased.

"Oh, whatever! I'll whoop you when we play tomorrow!" Ren said with ferocity in his voice. He was laying on his back, stretching out in exasperation, frustrated from losing over and over.

Yuzuru laughed and snapped a photo of his expression. "Ha! You're such a sore loser! I'm gonna frame this one!" she said teasingly. "Though, with your skills, I probably will see that face again tomorrow, and the next day!" Yuzuru was teasing him, but her mind was thinking of other things. First and foremost, she was pissed that Ren, who was a little over a year younger than her, managed to outgrow her in the span of four months. Secondly, she was astonished at his guts. The timid and shy Ren who would never raise his voice at her, but would still tease her, was replaced by the fierce (in comparison) Ren who would do both.

Ren just huffed in response and turned over onto his stomach, kicking his legs in the air. "Ahhh, Yuzuru, I've missed you so much! You have no idea how much I've wanted to just hang out with you…" he turned his head to the side, staring at her. "Even just being around you fills me with joy!"

Yuzuru blushed at that. "Ahh, you're so lame! Why do you always say the romantic stuff, I can never think of anything like that to say!" she said as she laid down on Ren's back, landing hard on it with her own. "...But… thanks…" Glad that she was positioned in a way that made it impossible for Ren to see her face, Yuzuru's ears burned even more red. Her eyes widened a little. "_Woah…_" she thought as she noticed muscle where muscle definitely did not exist prior. Yuzuru, who had always been the tougher one in their (and still was), could never picture Ren gaining too much muscle. However, due to training for the past few months, he had achieved exactly that (though it was not much). Yuzuru smiled to herself, proud of her boyfriend.

* * *

Ren smiled as he felt Yuzuru on top of his back. The two relaxed for the next few minutes, laying in silence. Ms. Nishimiya peeked her head in the room briefly, but neither of them noticed. She decided to leave them alone. "_Maybe I'm being too protective…_" she thought as she went to her own room. She frowned to herself. "_I've been too harsh on Yuzuru… _" She recalled recent times when she thought it would be impossible for Yuzuru to end up with anyone. She thought that her only chance at having grandchildren was with Shoko and Shoya. Now, Yuzuru had a perfectly nice, trustworthy, hard-working boyfriend, and she said something to frighten and embarrass him. _"I shouldn't have said anything… Ren is a good kid. I need to quit tormenting the Ishida boys…_" she thought with her head resting on one of her hands and sipping coffee.

Ms. Nishimiya apologized to both Ren and Yuzuru together. Both of them were blushing like crazy, but they accepted the apology. Ms. Nishimiya had said that she would drop the subject before, but this time she actually meant it. She had complete trust in Ren when it came to taking care of Yuzuru, just as she had for Shoya when it came to Shoko. Through either of them, she saw hearts of gold that would never do anything irresponsible, nor anything that would hurt her daughters or make them uncomfortable. "Oh, and Ren…" she began, still sipping coffee. "You can stay over for as long as you like. I was wrong to try and stop you from doing that."

* * *

Summer break was a whole lot of fun for them. Nothing changed between the two since that uncomfortable conversation, since all of their interactions had been exclusively wholesome from the start. Ren spent a few nights at the Nishimiya residence, then a few at the Ishida residence. Shoya and Shoko got back home, and Ren was excited to see their reactions to his growth. Shoko noticed it a lot more than Shoya, since she had not seen Ren since January. Shoya, who was still well over a foot taller than Ren, really didn't notice any difference and had to have Shoko sign it to him from behind. Ren worked out for Judo training, and would often invite Yuzuru, who, despite being energetic and lively when competing or when her pride is at stake, is very lazy when it comes to actually exercising. So, that was pretty much the only thing Ren did alone all of summer break. _Together_, the four had a wonderful summer break. They went to see movies, they went on double-dates, and they went out to play a lot. Despite the blistering heat of the summer sun, for Ren, nothing was more comforting than the warmth of having Yuzuru so close to him.

* * *

Summer did not last forever though. Around September, Ren had to tearfully say goodbye to his friends, family, and girlfriend. Back in Kyoto, he set his bags down and prepared for another semester of hard work. "-so anyways, I've been sore all week!" Ren had been saying. Yuzuru only now was listening, though. Her mind was wandering elsewhere, to something he had said just a little before in the conversation. "_'You're the biggest inspiration in my life, Yuzuru…'_" Ren had said. Yuzuru was lost, wondering how she could inspire someone she considered so great like Ren.

"...But, right now, I just want to see your face." Ren said. Yuzuru's attention was fully grasped. She must've made a weird noise in response, since Ren laughed. "Did that surprise you? Sorry, I just miss you. I walk around school and see amazing architecture on the building, beautiful trees in the schoolyard, and brilliant decorations in the rooms. But… they don't get my attention like you do, you know?"

"_What the hell? What the hell, what the hell?!_" Yuzuru thought in a panic. "Ahh, you freaking silver-tongued bastard!" she exclaimed, burying her face in a pillow nearby. "I don't get it! First you say I inspire you, which is bullshit! Then you say something like that?!" Yuzuru was so confused, but so happy. In her eyes, Ren was the inspiring one. He was brilliant, kind, and hardworking; he helped everyone around him and expected nothing in return. "_Plus, he says some bullshit about how I'm pretty?_" she thought, gritting her teeth.

"You're damn right you inspire me!" Ren exclaimed. Yuzuru's eyes widened. She was not sure she had ever heard him curse before. "You, Yuzuru! You're so cool! I worked so hard so that I could get strong all because I wanted to be like you! I joined a martial art, and you still easily beat me up! You're just so amazing!"

Yuzuru looked down at her phone screen. Ren was attempting to connect to video, so that he could see her face. Yuzuru accepted, connecting to video herself. She didn't think it would be a problem; her face wasn't so red right now. "Y-Yuzuru! Are you okay?!" Ren asked his girlfriend. She didn't realize it, but she was crying at the moment. "Wh-what's wrong?..." Ren was feeling a little emotional too and was tearing up. Yuzuru smiled at this a little. "_So he's still the same, cute, Ren as always…_" she thought as she wiped her face and began to explain herself.

Those words resonated with Yuzuru a lot. She usually wasn't one to cry from happiness, but Ren just made her so happy. With all the progress Ren has made for himself, all the amazing things he's done, for him to idolize Yuzuru instead of vice-versa seemed so ridiculous- and so ridiculously sweet. "And there's the other thing, man…" Yuzuru said in a calm voice (she did not cry for long). "I just don't see how you think I'm pretty..."

Ren sighed. "Well, I don't have a good explanation for it." he began. "I've just… sort of always thought so, you know? It's like, seeing you makes me happy." Yuzuru knew exactly what he was talking about, since she felt the exact same way when she saw him. In fact, the only reason she connected to video was so she could see his face longer.

After they both calmed down, they talked about normal things. Yuzuru was laying down, her face mostly buried in her pillow, but looking up at her phone. The whole rest of the conversation, the only thing they could think about was how lucky one was to have the other. "Good night Ren. I love you." she said while preparing to hang up. Ren was a little surprised to hear this come from Yuzuru, and Yuzuru was, ironically, also surprised. The two of them hardly said such a significant phrase over the phone, since they didn't want it to lost meaning. However, tonight, it felt more right than ever to say it.

Ren beamed with joy, letting words that he so deeply felt escape his lips. "I love you too, Yuzuru!"

* * *

For four months, school continued as usual for Ren- or at least- as usual as it had gone for the first semester. The only differences were a slight change of classes, a lack of night classes, and a little more free time to do homework. His classes were harder this semester, so it helped that he had the extra free time. The extra free time actually enabled him to come over during the weekends, something he and Yuzuru were overjoyed about. He could not come over every weekend, but he could for most of them.

It was December, and it was time for winter break now. Shoya went to pick up Shoko, and by the time Ren got back home as well, everyone was home for break. Shoko was again surprised at Ren's growth. Because Ren had visited so frequently during the semester, Yuzuru had not noticed him get even taller. Shoya didn't notice it either, but he really couldn't be expected to. Something that nobody noticed, though, was that Yuzuru got a bit taller too. Yuzuru now stood at 143cm (just over 4'8"), and Ren now stood at 152cm (almost 5 feet). Shoko was easily able to notice both of these, but she just kept things to herself.

* * *

"Huh? Where are you going?" Yuzuru asked as Ren got up. It was early in the morning, and he had just woken up from sleeping over. He had not been working out in the mornings as he used to, but he still would make breakfast for the Nishimiyas when he was there. However, after making food for everyone, Ren came back into Yuzuru's room and put on a coat.

"Huh? Oh, I didn't know you're awake." Ren replied as he slipped on some gloves. "I'm going shopping, do you want anything?"

"Huh?" Yuzuru asked, blinking and rubbing tiredness out of her heavy eyelids. "If you're going shopping, I'll come with you…" She yawned. "I don't want you going alone…"

Ren shook his head and walked over to Yuzuru's bed. "Silly." he said as he planted a kiss on the top of her head. "I'm going to be buying Christmas presents too, you know? I can't bring anyone with me." Yuzuru blushed and swiped her bangs out of her eyes, getting a better look at Ren. She was going to protest, not wanting him to go alone, but Ren stopped her. "Yuzuru, I'll be fine. I promise."

* * *

After going to the Ishida residence to wrap all of the presents up, Ren departed. "Sleep well, everyone…" he whispered as he left through the back door. He went back to the Nishimiya apartment, where Yuzuru was looking pouty. "Umm… are you okay?"

"Yeah…" she said, though Ren knew she was lying. She blew a puff of air upwards, knocking one of her bangs that had been in her face to the side of it. "_You're so obvious…_" Ren thought as he felt a drop of sweat run down his temple. "You know why I worry, right?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Ren said, reminiscing. He sat down on Yuzuru's bed and recalled the reason. Around the same time last year, Ren was beaten brutally while walking alone, shopping for Christmas presents. It was completely avoidable, but it happened nonetheless. Ever since then, Yuzuru and Shoya were careful about not letting him go out alone too much unless he's walking home. However, this happening was one of the main reasons why Ren wanted to learn how to defend himself. His logic was that, if he learned how to defend himself, he may not only be strong like Yuzuru, but he could protect the things important to himself and her (like a camera, for instance), without being brutally wounded. Ren smiled. "I'm sorry. But I can protect myself, Yuzuru! Besides, you know that I can't go Christmas shopping with a bunch of other people, that'd ruin the surprises…"

* * *

Yuzuru just pouted with her arms crossed. Ren leaned over to her and rested his head on her shoulder. "You are feeling very sleepy…" he said with a wavering tone and a lilt to his voice.

Yuzuru snickered and pushed him off of her. "That's not gonna work, man." she said with a happier tone. She had known of Ren's weakness for a year now; Ren would fall asleep instantly if she massaged his scalp or played with his hair. Ren, was completely defenseless against Yuzuru. Even though Ren had become good at Judo for his size, Yuzuru easily outwrestled him; even though Ren had a knack for picking up patterns, Yuzuru would beat him in video games; and even though it's been a year, Ren would fall asleep immediately if Yuzuru wanted him to. The only conceivable way that Ren could get an advantage would be if he found a way to make her fall asleep. He's tried everything from hypnosis, to back massages, to even scalp massages, but nothing has worked. "_In the end, Yuzuru's still the greatest…_" Ren thought with a subtle smile.

* * *

Shoya was also unhappy whenever he saw Ren leave by himself. Shoya had sworn to protect his younger brother, and he could hardly accept that he had grown enough to protect himself. The two of them were sitting in Shoya's room, when Ren suddenly remembered something. "Oh, crap! I've gotta go do something, Aniki! I'll be right back!" he said as he put a coat on.

Shoya was hesitant. "Wait man, it's late. Can't it wait until tomorrow?" he asked, and Ren shook his head. "Well, then… hold on, let me put a coat on too." Shoya put his comic book down and put on a large winter coat and scarf. Ren stared at Shoya, but he wasn't really in any position to refuse him or prevent him from going. The two left, letting their mother know that they would return soon. "So, where are we going?" Shoya asked, watching Ren lead the way.

"Well, I wanted to get this one game before I forgot about it. It's for Yuzuru!" he explained. Shoya smiled in response, thinking that this was a sweet reason to go shopping late at night. "I was gonna jog here, but in retrospect, it's good that I didn't. I'd be all sweaty by the time I got to the store!"

Shoya stared at Ren, and visions of the past fluttered by. Shoya saw the skinny, small boy shivering from falling into a river, then he saw the boy collapsed on the ground with a camera in his arms, then he saw the boy's old high school, where he had gone to pick him up. But those were just visions of the past. Right now, Shoya saw the boy who had lived every day to the fullest since he had known him. He saw the capable, changed boy who may really be able to protect himself. Shoya stared at the ground. "_No matter what, he's my little brother. Even if he doesn't need me here, I'll still be here…_" he thought, steeling his resolve. He saw the kid in front of him and smiled. His serious expression and mindset melted a little from the boy in front of him. Shoya got the same warm feeling that he would get whenever he would pick Maria up from school. "_That's right, he's my little brother…_"

* * *

Shoko's impression of Ren was always pretty high. She knew from the very beginning that Yuzuru had an abnormal interest in him- one that was deeper than regular concern. Beginning at the time that he risked his own life to protect Yuzuru's camera, Shoko knew that he would be a part of the family forever. She knew that he had helped Yuzuru ace her final exam, looked for presents for everyone, and cooked breakfast for their family. He was even considerate enough to learn sign language and be a part of conversations. Now, Ren really _was_ part of the two-house family. Shoko went to college in Tokyo, so she could not be around to see any of the people at home on a daily basis. This just meant that, when she got home, she noticed just how much Ren had grown.

Shoko ran her hands through Shoya's hair. He seemed pretty stressed out, and was laying with his head on her lap, something that neither of them were comfortable with a year ago. Now, Shoko was- for lack of a better term- seeing his problems (not listening to). Shoya, while signing, said, "Is it wrong for me to want to protect him? I mean, I didn't bring it up with him, I just, you know, am worried that I'm being overbearing…"

Shoko smiled as she stared at her boyfriend's moving hands. "_He's so considerate of others…_" she thought, liking the brotherly love between him and Ren. She then thought about how much Ren had changed over the past year. "Wen is shanging in ways you can't see." she said as she brushed his hair with her hands. "But still, I thing he's happy to rely on his big bro. You'ah doing great, Shoya."

* * *

New Year's Eve- It was a day when everything came to a close. For most, it marked the end of a year and preceded the festivities of the New Year. For Ren, it preceded his birthday, or at least the day it was celebrated on. More importantly to Ren, though, was the celebration of his one year anniversary with Yuzuru.

Ren had already made preparations for that; it would be a normal, standard celebration. Tonight, however, they would celebrate his birthday. "Woah… this is just as cool as I would have imagined!" Ren said as he looked around the interior of the building he just walked into. The walls were black with neon green and other bright colors painted on in interesting and futuristic patterns. "So this is lazer tag…"

Ren wanted everyone to have as much fun as possible, and he wanted as many people to have fun as possible. Ren asked Yuzuru, Shoya, and Shoko to invite whoever they wanted to. So, a bunch of people, many of whom Ren was acquainted with and all of whom Ren had heard of, showed up to his lazer tag party.

Inside the room, they all put vests on. Ren and Yuzuru were sure to join opposite teams, since they would directly compete with each other. The teams were as such: Red team included Ren, Shoya, Shoko, and Miyoko, while Blue team included Yuzuru, Tomohiro, Satoshi, Miki, and Naoka. Immediately, they were thrown into the dark room. Shoya and Shoko stuck together, but pretty much everyone else on either team split up. Firing commenced, and Ren began to have a blast. "This is… amazing!" he thought as he peaked around corners, taking shots at the Blue team.

* * *

"Ahh, you little-!" a strange voice called out in the darkness. "We're on the same team!"

"Shut up, turd-head!" Yuzuru's voice called back. "_Turd-head? Ahh, so that's Tomohiro…_" Ren thought with a chuckle. "There's no friendly-fire, so it's no harm done!"

"You slapped me with your gun, idiot!" the angry voice of Tomohiro said as he ran out of cover. Ren immediately blasted him, after which he made a dramatic, fake dying-noise that drew the attention of everyone and made him a target. "Sh-shit, I've gotta get outta here!" he said as he ran further into the maze.

* * *

"_So, Yuzuru's right there…_" Ren thought as he rounded the corner. Instantly, a light came on, blasting his chest and "killing" him. "Wha- how'd you see me?" Ren asked, baffled. "And how'd you shoot, I can't even see you!"

Yuzuru snickered. "Come in here and find out, why don't you?" she taunted, goading him into becoming a few more easy points for her on the leaderboard. Ren raised an eyebrow, but he had an advantage. He had not respawn yet, so he could not be killed yet. He slowly rounded the corner and saw Yuzuru's secret. Yuzuru's secret was a mirror on the wall, which reflected the lazers, as well as giving her good visuals on other players. Just as he was about to call her out on it, he felt a pair of hands meet his face and pull him in. Yuzuru pulled Ren in for a kiss on the lips, one that lasted around five seconds. "I've been waiting to do that, you know." She had a coy smile on her face, smiling at Ren's wide eyes. "Oh, and you can have this spot. It's previous owner just committed murder…" Yuzuru shot Ren in the vest, killing him once more, and cackled as she ran to find a different spot.

At the end of the match, both of them stared at the leaderboard with blank expressions on their faces. "_...What?_" they both seemed to think. Somehow, Shoko, the peaceful, sweet, innocent, docile, girl, had gotten the highest score.

* * *

The year had wound to a close, and a new one opened right up. Right off the bat, Ren and Yuzuru had a romantic anniversary, where Ren bought Yuzuru a Lucky Love Cat, as well as some manga that she expressed interest in. However, as it always happens, students have to return to school. They did not linger at the train station for too long, since they would all see him at the end of the week. Ren did, however, take more time to say goodbye to Shoko, since he would very likely not see her until summer time. He hugged everyone, kissed Yuzuru on the cheek, and boarded the train.

* * *

Next monday had been the Coming of Age Ceremony. "Ahh, man! I wish I could've been there, I mean, _everyone_ was there!" Ren said with an exasperated tone. "At least you got some really good photos, right? Be sure to send them to me!"

Yuzuru snickered. "Well, yeah, I guess the photos were nice! But I got to leave school early _and_ eat some cake! I'd say that was my favorite part!" she said.

Ren could tell that she had a smile on her face just from the way she replied, but he couldn't help but want to see it. "Hey, can we switch to video call?" he asked, and, with a blush, Yuzuru accepted. The two joked around for a bit until Ren thought of something. "So, everyone seems to be going their separate ways… Do you really think Shoya and Shoko are gonna move to Tokyo?"

Yuzuru gave a sad smile. "Yeah, I do…" she started. "But it's for the best, you know? I want them to be happy. If that's the future they both want, then I'll support it."

Ren had roughly the same expression as Yuzuru on his face. "Yeah… you're right. They're definitely most happy when they're together…" he said, his face going blank from thought. "Speaking of which, what will we do after high school?" Ren asked this in a more serious tone than the other question.

Yuzuru had considered this before. "We'll be together." she said simply. "I know we'll be together. No matter what the future holds for us, and however far apart from each other we are, we'll still have each other."

Ren teared up a little from what Yuzuru said. He sighed and stretched, placing the phone near his head. He imagined he was laying down right next to the love of his life, whose voice he could hear right next to him. He closed his eyes, ready to fall asleep while on the phone with her. "Thank you for that, Yuzuru." he said, dreamily. "You're… super…"

* * *

**-**_**Story End**_**-**

* * *

I have had an amazing time working on this story. The amount of reviews that I have received, telling me things along the lines of "I made this account only so I could review this story," or, "I usually don't like OC's in stories but good job," has had a profound effect on my motivation to write. I eagerly check my email multiple times a day, hoping to see feedback on my stories. Well, I must say, thank you all. I do my best to write well, and it certainly feels like I've achieved my goal when I read the wonderful things you all write, or even when I see a notification for a new follower or favorite. Thank you all so very, very much.

There has not been a story that I've worked on longer, and I doubt there ever will be. This is paired with the fact that Chō-Yuzuru is just a subplot to the broader story. Though as readers, you have no obligation to do so, there is a recommended order of reading my stories. To preface this, it is recommended that you read the manga of _A Silent Voice_ first, since that is what all of my stories are based off of. My stories go in the following order- Two Weeks or Tokyo (all chapters), Days and Years (chapters 1-5), Chō-Yuzuru (all chapters), and then Days and Years (6-whenever). To be more clear, I plan on working on Days and Years even more, and (although not very much) I will be including Ren in it. I would not like to make Ren an integral character in the story, since he is an OC, but I would like nothing more than to tie the stories together and include cameos of him that show anecdotes from Yuzuru's through extension.

**_To reiterate a previously mentioned sentiment, thank you all for all of your support!_**


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